Time Waits for No One
by Just Mosie
Summary: Truthfully she was far from 'all right,' but she would never admit to it. A few hours ago her consultant, Patrick Jane, not only killed the serial killer Red John, but also made love to her in the department issue vehicle. Now he sat in a holding cell.
1. Just Take My Hand

**Disclaimer (That applies to every single chapter of this story): I don't own The Mentalist. **

Time Waits For No One

Chapter One: Just Take My Hand

Her body arched into his as she threw her head back. Her eyes slipping shut and fingers gripping onto his golden curls as he ran his hands along her back, and moved up towards her delicate shoulders. She brought her head back down level to his; he caught her lips in his once more feeling the overwhelming softness of them. Her hand slid away from his curls and down the side of his neck. She began trailing her fingertips down past his shoulder and bicep, barely brushing them over his forearm as she moved to grasp onto his dry bloodied hand. He returned her hold and broke his lips away from hers.

Briefly parting, their eyes never wavering as they locked with each other. His eyes were dilated, and she knew hers probably were as well. His lips were swollen, and when he leaning in further, she realized that her over-sensitive lips were just as swollen as his. Leaning back into him, she let out a weathered sigh. His hands moved up and grasped behind her head, his hands tangling within her dark auburn locks. Shutting her eyes again, she was pressing into his body once more with more fervor than before. He was pressing his lips against her much harder than before, his tongue putting pressure against her soft lips. Opening her mouth, she granted him permission, and he slipped his tongue inside to tangle with hers. Emitting a soft moan, she let herself fall back further into the cushions of the department issue Chevy Traverse. She was reaching up and wrapping her fingers around the lapels of his jacket. She began pushing it passed his shoulders and down his arms. Without breaking contact with her lips, he helped her slide it off his arms. Once that was off, she began working on the buttons to his vest. Her fingers were trembling and her heartbeat was erratic. Pulling away slightly so she could breathe, she gasped and felt a blush rise up in her cheeks.

"You okay?" he asked her, brushing his thumb against the apple of her rosy cheek.

Her eyes locked with his, "Yeah." She leaned forward to capture his lips in a long drawn out kiss. He slid his hand from her cheek and trailed it down the side of her face and neck. Drumming his fingers along the smooth flesh of her neck, he felt her stiffen beneath his grasp. The man pulled away only slightly so he could trail soft kisses from her nose up to her hairline. Then he brought his head down, gently nuzzling her, nose against nose.

Blinking softly and unbuttoning the last button to his vest, she deftly slid it past his shoulders. Tossing it to the side so it landed right on top of his jacket, she brought her hands up to his bloodied shirt. Seeing dried coppery blood on his baby blue shirt was a new sight, and it should have been appalling to her, but it wasn't. Instead she ran her fingers over the blood stains, her breath hitching in her throat as tears formed in her eyes. She began to look away when his finger hooked underneath her chin and brought her eyes to look back up at him.

Love. Warmth. Devotion. Heartache.

Letting the tears fall freely from her cheeks, she began undocking his shirt from his trousers. Her eyes never fell away from his, she kept her eyes on his the entire time as she slid her hand up and began unbuttoning each and every clear button that held his shirt together. When she finished, he was reaching down and grasping her hand in his. Bringing her hand up to his lips and pressing a barely noticeable kiss on her knuckles, she felt a wet teardrop fall onto her hand. Curling her fingers around his, she took her free hand and began to work his shirt off his body, not wanting to break the union of their hands. She heard his breath hitch as she softly brushes her fingertips along his bare shoulder blade.

He let the shirt fall from his arms as he leaned forward to kiss her firmly. Pushing her back down against the car seat, his fingers began removing her shirt from her pants and hitching it over her head. He only broke contact with her lips briefly so her shirt could be removed completely from her body before being placed on top of his. Leaning closer to her body until he was pressed solidly into her body, he felt her body stiffen beneath his. His heated skin against her abdomen had her curling her toes inside her shoes and her heart beating erratically than ever before. Then she felt more of her briny tears rolling down her cheeks and sloping down the side of her neck. He saw the path of the watery drops and leaned down, nuzzling the side of her neck and letting his nose dampen with her tears. She brought her hand up to tangle in his curls before she grasps on tighter to pull him up. His eyes darken and dilate further. Hers do as well. Within seconds, his mouth is over hers and his hands wrap around her hips.

* * *

Looking at her reflection in the mirror, Teresa Lisbon could only conclude that she looked like crap. Her eyes looking distant with dark circles beneath them and her hair everywhere, it was only a matter of time before someone were to ask her if she was all right. Truthfully she was far from "all right," but she would never admit to it. A few hours ago her consultant, Patrick Jane, not only killed the serial killer Red John, but also made love to her in a department issue vehicle. Now he was sitting in a holding cell deep in the CBI's basement where he awaited transportation to prison. The thought created a deep chasm in the bottom of her stomach, but she knew it was what the law stated.

She shook her head and brought her hand up to run it through her unruly waves. Pausing, she shut her eyes and took a deep breath in and then out through her mouth. She opens her eyes and moves forward to turn the dial on the faucet. She keeps it on cold, which is exactly what it is right now: cold. Placing her hands underneath the frigid water, she shivers and chokes back the tears that prick on the corners of her eyes. Hunching her shoulders up to the point where they seem to rest beneath her ears, she squeezes her eyes shut and suddenly feels the overwhelming urge to scream. How dare he just go and kill Red John just like that! Didn't he care about the people around him? Those who needed him and loved him? After all they had been through over the course of the years, he still had the audacity to go ahead and shoot the serial killer at close range with her gun. She wants to go down to that holding cell right now, yell at him, scream at him, and tell him of his mal actions. But she already knows what he will say or do. He will say something about how his wife and child needed this, and how he needed this all the same. If she were to talk to him, she would have to fight herself to keep from calling him a moronic idiot.

Twisting the dial, she shut the water off and reaches over for a rough paper towel. Thoroughly drying off her hands, she throws the wadded paper away in the bin and heads out towards her office, her head remaining up for all to see. She avoids the looks of her team as she walks past them and ignores their concerns. They heard that she got their too late and just in time to see that Jane had indeed taken her weapon and used it to kill Red John. Her team definitely did not know what they had done in the crossover sports utility vehicle right before they had returned back to headquarters, and they didn't necessarily need to know.

She moves into her office and sits down on her couch. Leaning back, she brushes her hand against the soft fabric of the couch that tickled the tips of her fingers. He had bought her this couch awhile back, and it held some sentimental value to her, but now she wanted it gone. She didn't even want her old couch back. She wanted a brand new couch that would replace this one and the other before. Both held too many memories with Patrick Jane and she wishes for them both to be erased from her mind forever.

"Boss?" she hears a soft knocking on the door frame.

Looking up, she sees the perturbed face of Van Pelt standing before her. "Yes, Grace?" Lisbon wonders if she still had a few tears on the side of her face, but she was sure that they were gone before she left the bathroom.

"Are you okay?" Her rookie steps further into the room with her hands clasped in front of her body. "The guys and I are a bit worried, and –." She stops talking when she sees Lisbon's face.

Downcast. Forlorn. Melancholy.

She wasn't okay.

**Revision Date: 16 April 2012**


	2. Don't be Afraid of Tomorrow

**I really was surprised that the first chapter had received so much attention! Believe me, I was in shock and quite happy! Thank you everyone who reviewed, favourited, and subscribed! Oh and not sure if anyone has discovered this, but the story's title and a so far the chapter titles are based off of a song and its lyrics "Illuminated" by Hurts. I listen to it when I write this and the song is just plain magically amazing...I would write more in this authors note (that is if you read them) but my computer is about to die of battery starvation. **

**MentalistLover: Thank you! I'm glad you like it! **

**xanderseye: I'm really glad that you enjoyed reading this! Thank you!**

**Disclaimer: No, sorry, but I don't own The Mentalist. **

Chapter Two: Don't Be Afraid of Tomorrow

Her back knocks against the porcelain of her bathtub as waves of nausea threaten to take over. Four bottles of water and two little pink lines later, she has come to conclusion that what happened in the department issue Chevy Traverse had conceived a baby. The lapse in her menstrual cycle was brushed off as 'stress' and the slight tenderness in her breasts and stomach pains were just 'incoming cycle' warnings. When she had initially become nauseous, she kept on telling herself it was bad Thai food. Her thoughts never stopped to consider the fact that she may be pregnant. Not until she saw a woman pushing along a baby stroller on her commute home and she connected the dots.

Groaning, she moves her hands to curl around the edges of the bathtub to hoist herself up to a standing position. Taking in a deep breath, she starts towards her bedroom, her hand brushing over her still flat abdomen for probably the tenth time since she had received her second positive test. It all seemed so unreal; being pregnant had not once crossed paths with her mind, nor did she ever think that her child's father would be in jail while she had to go through everything alone.

Jane.

What was she going to tell him? Not once since he had gone off to prison five weeks ago has she seen him since. He had immediately admitted to what he had done to Cho in interrogation and knew he had to face the consequences, and for once like a mature adult he was.

"_Did you kill the known serial killer Red John?" Cho stared at Jane, his hands clasped together as he leaned slightly forward on the table. _

_Jane nodded, his eyes looking off into the distance as he felt the weight of his actions, "Yes I did," his eyes flickered towards the one-sided glass, knowing well that Lisbon stood behind leaning against it with a melancholy expression. "I killed Red John for Angela and Charlotte," his eyes moved back to Cho, "It was also to save Lisbon's life," he leaned forward, "Cho, he was going to kill her if I didn't kill him first."_

_Cho shook his head, "No Jane, that's not how the law works."_

"_Would you let him kill her, or would you take action quietly?"_

_Lisbon had stepped back from the one-sided glass. She thought that Jane was just thinking up a bunch of hogwash and there was no way that Red John would ever set his sights on her. She also knew that Cho would have to answer Jane's question with trepidation to insure that he didn't say something that could hurt his career. What the former-consultant had asked really had her top interrogator thinking. _

"_I can't answer that, Jane."_

A tear began to roll down her cheek and she brushes it away with the back of her hand. She feels so alone and can not even formulate what she will tell her team and Hightower. Sure they may think that she actually did indeed have a short time romance with a man during a certain time period, but due to her solemn demeanor they would figure out the father's true identity. The very thought that her team may go out of their way was in a sense comforting, but it would also seem like an invasion into her personal life. She didn't need to tell the team anything unless she wanted to. It was not their business as to who her child's father was.

Her child.

More tears fell down her cheeks and she kept herself from wiping them away. She hates to show weakness, but she guesses that in the safety of her own home, it will be all right. Deciding to compile all of her courage, she walks over to the nightstand next to her bed and picks up her Blackberry. Pressing a few buttons and scrolling down until she finds her doctor's number, she presses the green button and hesitantly holds it up to her ear. She takes a deep breath.

"Hi, this is Teresa Lisbon and I would like to make an appointment with Dr. Sanders."

* * *

For the past five weeks he found himself wallowing in a sense of guilt and boredom. When he first entered his cell, he quickly discovered that this was going to be different than when he was last in prison. The last time he had simply placed a bug underneath Sam Bosco's desk, but this time he'd killed a man. Given that the same man was a notorious serial killer that haunted California for ten plus year, he knew he would still need to suffer the consequences. He had gone in with Lisbon's gun and let the man talk. After he had had enough, Jane took aim and fired off three rounds. The last one lodging into Red John's forehead. When he had killed Red John, he thought the sense of guilt would leave him, but it only increased. He felt free in a sense, but he completely broke internally when he saw Lisbon's saddened face. His heart had broken even further when they had participated in one of the most important acts of love.

Now he sat alone on a padded cot with a scratchy blanket on top awaiting to be transported to the courthouse later this afternoon. His lawyer, Kaitlin Stark, had told him that she would do her best to keep him out of prison, but he told her she did not have to. He knew she was a very good lawyer and never stopped until everyone saw her fit, and that was probably why Hightower had hired her. Jane wasn't quite so sure why she hasn't just taken the time to cover it all up if she went ahead to bother with assigning him a brilliant lawyer, but there were many mysteries to Madeline Hightower.

_He entered a room, it was plain and had a few signs nailed to the wall explicitly telling inmates to remain seated unless instructed. Other than the signs on the wall and the metal tables and chairs that were bolted to the floor, the room had no contents. He and 'his guard' were the only ones in the room and Jane couldn't help but look up at the guard with a high eyebrow. _

"_Uh, excuse me, but why are we here?"_

_The guard looked down at him, "You have a visitor, she should be coming in soon," at the sound of a 'she' Jane's eyes lit up almost instantly. He hoped it was Lisbon who was coming to visit him, even though he had half-expected her to be extremely angry with him. _

_He was surprised when a woman around average height and weight entered the room. She wore a simple suit with a pencil skirt, her mousy brown hair tied back into a bun and her hazel eyes hidden by a pair of wire-rimmed glasses. She immediately walked over to them and held out her right hand and clutched onto a manila folder in her left. _

"_Hello, you must be Mr. Jane." _

_She shook his hand and he couldn't help but smile only slightly, "Yeah, must be," he looked over at his guard before glancing back at the woman, "And you are?"_

_The woman pulled her hand away from his, "Kaitlin Stark, your lawyer."_

Smiling and leaning back against the cold stone wall, Jane sighs. He wishes he had something in his hands to fiddle with to help pass the time, but he was pretty sure the prison staff would object to that. Shutting his eyes, he tried to remember his life before Red John came in. It was so good back then and he remembers every detail, but the image of no one other than Teresa Lisbon kept on creeping into his mind. The petite senior agent was not always visually present in his memories, but he could still almost sense her presence. Slipping his eyes shut and humming, he began rocking his head back and forth against he now warmed wall behind him. His hands drop from his lap and onto the top layer of sheets that rested on top of the cheap prison linens.

"Mr. Jane." His eyes snap open at the sudden sound of a voice coming from his right. Turning his head around, he sees the same guard that escorted him a few weeks ago to see his lawyer standing before him, "It's time to leave now."

* * *

The drive to the courthouse seemed like it had gone on for much too long. Jane had spent most of the time fiddling with the slight chain that connected his two handcuffs and looking out the window as the trees, other cars, and people were passed by. When they had pulled up to the courthouse, a few bystanders had gathered around his transportation vehicle with signs and poster boards. They waved them around, shouting to set him free and that he was California's true hero. It made him smile bitter sweetly at the thought that these people would go to extreme lengths to keep him out of jail for several years.

He sat on a wooden bench, two police officers on either side of him. Jane remains there patiently and would sometimes glance over his shoulder in hopes of seeing someone from his former unit. The only people he recognized were his lawyer and Hightower. It was comforting to see familiar faces, but he really wanted Lisbon to be there. Suddenly his eyes lit up at the appearances of three familiar faces: Grace, Cho, and Rigsby. The trio filed in, Cho's head facing forward, Rigsby's downward, and Grace searching the room for him. When she saw him, her face lit up and she smiles softly. He returned the smile and raised his cuffed hands to offer her a slight wave before turning around to settle. Leaning further into the wooden bench, he shut his eyes and moves his head down.

Breathing deeply, he opens his eyes and glances over his shoulder just in time to see the brunette senior agent walk in. His eyes light up, but then he frowns as he takes in her appearance. To say she looks horrible is an understatement, but still beautiful. She looks weathered and yet ill all at the same time. Her appearance makes him want to stand up and move towards her and take her in his arms, but he knows no one would appreciate if he did such.

She lifts her head just in time to make eye contact with him, but she refuses to hold it for long. Lisbon immediately looks back down and walks faster towards her team and precedes to sit next to them. Jane feels a sinking sensation in his stomach, he knows that she is also affected by Red John's death all the same as he, but he doesn't regret killing the man if it means to keep her safe.

He has come to terms that his prison sentence is the cost of keeping the woman he loves safe and sound. Not only is he keeping her safe, but he is also giving some broken families a sense of closure now that the man who killed their loved one is now deceased and more so sitting around in hell.

**The next chapter will not take place immediately after this, but probably a few months later. Probably about 4-5 months later. **


	3. My Eyes Are Open

**I would like to thank everyone who read, reviewed, favourited, and subscribed. It really means a lot to get those email notifications and it shows me that people are enjoying this. For this weekend I'm in the Northeast dealing with a few unpleasant things, and since I spent most of the afternoon in an airport/airplane, about 90% of this was written in such places. Some bits might be a little bit iffy, I blame the quick increase in elevation having an impact on my poor melted brain. High school nowadays does that to you. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own, nor will I ever, The Mentalist. **

Chapter Three: My Eyes Are Open

She slips the dark purple shirt over her head and brings it down over the swell of her belly. Smoothing it down, she turns and looks at her reflection in the long mirror sitting a few feet from her bed. Time has gone by so fast, now six months pregnant her belly has quickly grown to accommodate the size of her unborn child. Softly smiling, she rests a hand on the side of the swell to lightly press down. Seconds after she felt a slight fluttering sensation beneath her fingertips, she smiles and closes her eyes for a moment before opening them again to glance at herself in the mirror. She knew Jane would ask questions when she would walk in today. This will be the first time she has seen him since he admitted to the judge that he was in fact guilty of murder. Her team had gone to see him at least once a week, mostly Grace and Rigsby did this, but occasionally she would hear that Cho had gone to see him.

It is hard for Cho to see him, that is how much she knows. Cho knew that Jane was the father of her unborn child and it affected her the most, and therefore the man visits Jane as little as possible to mostly appease Grace. It's touching to know that her two younger agents still thought of Jane as part of the team, but she refuses any contact with him since he had gone to prison. But today is a different day. Three days ago Grace had come to her office and asked her to see him. At first she had flat out refused it, but her rookie agent would not take 'no' for an answer. Grace had explained that Jane wanted to see her the most, and that he was not getting much sleep because he did not know if she was doing all right.

Sighing to herself, she turns away from the mirror and heads out through her bedroom door. Venturing down the hall and staircase, she picks up her car keys and moves through the front door. It would be a thirty minute drive to the prison if she took the highway, so she decides that it would be best to stop off at the 7-Eleven for a bottled water before she gets too close.

* * *

Jane splashes some cold water on his face. The bone-chilling water ensures that he will remain awake and alert throughout the day, despite hating daytime the worst. He would think that he would hate nighttime more than the day, but it was the exact opposite. The night brought back fond memories that would often bring tears to his eyes as he lay on his uncomfortable cot with a scratchy grey blanket. Night was the only time everyone would leave him alone, and he could metaphorically escape the boundaries these prison walls had set up for him only temporarily.

"Hey Jane, can you move?" he looks over to his left and sees his roommate, Jon Norman.

Norman is a rather short man with a bald spot on the back of his head. He wears thick-framed glasses that cover up his little hazel eyes. Overall, Norman isn't the most attractive man out there, but he was rather interesting and far from evil. He was in this prison because he accidentally killed a man while drunk. He had already had a few previous DUI's, so this definitely caused him to go into the jail.

"Uh, yes," Jane nods and steps aside, allowing his 'buddy' to take his place by the sink.

His eyes flicker to the end of the wall, where Norman has placed a few pictures over the last couple of months. He has a wife, Susan, and two children, Chris and Casey. Sometimes twice a week his family would come to visit him, and Norman always looks forward to these visits. He speaks fondly of his family and sometimes grew upset after they would leave their visits. One of the reasons they got along so well was because, like him, Jane sometimes spoke of Lisbon. He would tell Norman about her and often describe her, his 'buddy' would often tell him that she sounded extraordinary, and he was so correct.

When Norman finished with the sink, he turns to Jane, "Do you think she'll ever visit you?"

Jane blinked, "Who? Teresa?" the balding man nodded, "I don't know Norman," he sits down on his cot – he liked the bottom one – and twiddles his thumbs, "She was upset after the trial. She never told me that she was, but I could tell that I hurt her."

"You did it to save her life, right?"

Nodding, Jane looks up, "Yes," he whispered, "And to settle things. You know from some of my stories of what Red John did to my wife and child. That bastard had to e stopped, and I was the only one able to," pausing and taking a breath, he continued, "And the cost was prison."

Norman was about to say something, but there was a tapping sound on one of the bars. It was a guard with his key ring in hand. The very same one that tends to come around whenever a visitor is present for either him or Norman. Since Norman's family came two days ago, he figures it was mostly for Norman.

"Mr. Jane, you have a visitor."

Jane furrows his brow and gives the guard a look of astonishment. His somewhat weekly visitors had already come and gone, surely this is a mistake. The only reason why anyone will really come to see him is if something bad happened, especially if it were Lisbon. Dread begins to fill up and he stands to his feet. Clenching his hands into fists at his side, he eyes the guard and nods firmly. He walks closer to the metal barred doors and stands there until the guard opens it. Sticking out his hands for the handcuffs, he barely moves until they are securely around his wrists and taken by the forearm. He kept his face forward to mask any uncertainty and worry.

* * *

He walks into the room where he usually visits Grace and Rigsby. Whenever he was here, it was full of fellow inmates with their loved ones or family members, but right now it is void of all people. The quietness of the room made a chill run up his spine as the guard pushes him to sit down on an unmovable stool. Pausing, he looks up at the guard with a questioning gaze. This man kind of reminds him of Cho. Stoic. Definitely loyal.

"Uh, why am I here?"

"You have a visitor, they should be coming in any moment."

Jane nods and shifts to look forward again. He felt tense, and the anticipation of who was coming was almost killing him. Feeling his heart beat more rapidly in his chest, he began to drum his fingers on the metal table, probably annoying the guard and just not caring. He looks back up at the guard. A slight wave of satisfaction rolls over him when he sees the guard's brow tense at the overly annoying sound of his fingers repeatedly hitting the metal surface.

He stops when he hears a buzzing sound following a door opening. Jane looks up, his eyes wide and wondering if his visitor is finally going to come through the doors. Despite his seemingly cool exterior, he feels some sweat build of at his temples. He shuts his eyes and breathes in through his mouth then out of his nose before he opens his eyes back up. A woman was slowly moving towards him.

Lisbon!

He tries to stand up, but the guard clasps a hand roughly on his shoulder and slams him back down onto the stool, "Stay down!"

Jane tries to protest, but stops when he hears her firm voice, "He's fine," he turns back to look at her, but is surprised at what he sees.

His eyes widen when his gaze catches her swollen belly. Immediately he stiffens and his heart starts to beat frantically in his chest once more as numerous ideas run through his head. He had expected something bad, and this was far from bad in his eyes. It gave him a small sense of hope that she was carrying his child in her womb. She looks down and brings her hands to rest on the swell of her pregnant belly and walks forward and sits down at the table. He watches her in wonder as she lightly caresses her belly, sadness mixed with a look of adoration is definitely present in her gentle features.

"I asked the team to keep this from you," she speaks softly, "Until Grace asked me to come see you a couple of days ago." He watches her close her eyes and permit a few stray tears to fall down her cheeks. Right now he wants nothing more than to scoop her up in his arms, kiss her forehead, and come in contact with their unborn child in the most possible way.

"Why? Why would you keep my own child from me?" he barely manages to say out loud.

Her eyes open and she locks her gaze onto him, "Because I don't want it to know that its father has committed a crime!" she stands up on her feet, "I don't want to remember what you look like just in case _my _baby will look too much like you! I don't want any reminders!" Tears fell freely from her eyes as she moves to sit back down, feeling weak instantly.

"I just want you out of my life."

He turns his head to the side and sets his jaw. Jane turns back to her as he feels hurt and slight rage bubble up inside of his body, "Teresa, I did this to protect you!"

"Don't you dare give me that crap again! You killed Red John for your own personal revenge without any second thought about the people around you!" her voice stays low as she refuses to make eye contact with him.

"I loved you," she pauses, catching her breath, "And you knew it."

He lurches upwards, moving out of the guard's reaches, "I did this to protect you! If I hadn't killed him you'd be dead!" he feels the guard try to grasp onto his shoulders once more, but he continues to shrug out of reach, "If you would have died, you wouldn't be here right now. _Our _child wouldn't be growing inside of you!"

The guard grasps onto his arms and forces him face down onto the table. Lisbon stands and moves backwards, her hands touching her belly as she tries to look away from him. Jane tries to wrestle free of the guard, but cannot get free, "Listen to me!" he screams feeling the guard pull him off of the table and pull him away from her, "I am not lying to you!"

Tears fall equally from their eyes as he thrashes in the guards hold. She watches him, and beneath her palm feels the baby kick.

"_Teresa, I did this to protect—," she turns around quickly and moves towards him. Her gaze does not waver from his and she doesn't bother to hide the tears forming in the corners of her eyes. _

"_Don't!" she grabs the front of his shirt, "Just don't Jane!" her breathing hitches and she barely loosens her grip on the front of his shirt, "You have the right to remain silent," her voice gets caught in her throat as she allows a tear to roll down her cheek, "Anything you say…"_

_His hand covers hers and she stops. Looking down at her, he sees the tears glittering in her eyes. Her expression is broken and exhausted, she appears so small and vulnerable before him in this state. It breaks his heart to see her like this, but if he did not kill Red John first, then she would have become his next victim. When Red John had given him that note underneath the door to his apartment a week before this day, he knew he would need to act fast. It was either seeing her alive and broken or gone from the world forever. He would not be able to cope knowing she was dead. It was in his own selfish interests to keep her alive. _

_Or was it love. _

"_I loved you."_

She still loves him.


	4. Try Delusion For Awhile

**First off I really apologize for the long wait. These past two weeks have been hard and I have had a few...technological difficulties. Okay...massive technological difficulties, and due to the fact that it _is _a Thursday evening, I thought I should update. I also apologize for this being a rather short(ish) chapter and I hope the next one is longer. I would try to update again this weekend, but that is very unlikely. Thank you to everyone who read, reviewed, favourited, and subscribed. You guys are totally filled with awesome-ness.**

**xanderseye - He's not in jail for life, but he still is sentenced to a few year (around 10 years). I know I haven't said it and I will try to remember to put it in for chapter 5. **

Chapter Four: Try Delusion For Awhile

He sits on top his cot with his fingers clasping together tightly. His eyes looking forward and growing dry as he stares into the space before him. He knows that his reaction towards Lisbon's pregnancy and her feelings towards him were a bit over done just a tad no matter how much he finds them justified. The guard had shown him a small shred of mercy and just placed him back in his jail cell knowing full well that he had just become overly emotional with all the hurt and anger that has been driving him for the past few months.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Norman asks him from his top bunk, "Because you've been real quiet since you came back."

Jane can picture Norman right now. He is lying back, hands clasping behind his head with one leg propping up on the mattress and the other swung over his knee. He is probably looking up at the ceiling stains as he speaks to Jane.

"And you haven't said a word."

Jane shakes his head and leans against the cold wall behind him. Taking in a deep breath, he moves to slide back down on his cot and gazes up at the metal board separating he and Norman. Shutting his eyes and moving his hands up to rest against his belly, he prepares for what he is about to say.

"Teresa's pregnant," he hears Norman shifting from his downward position, "And she wants nothing to do with me." He adds the last statement quietly as he opens his eyes and begins to feel tears welling up in his eyes again. He is feeling all sorts of hurt emotions running through his veins. Some of those emotions make his heart feel as if it would stop, start, and then stop again. It felt painful and he hates it.

"Did you tell her?"

Jane shifts his head against his flat pillow, "Tell her what?" he quirks an eyebrow and feels the forming tears stop.

Norman sighs, "That you love her and did this to protect her. You did tell her that, didn't you?"

He remains silent and ponders his mind for the next thing to say. He had told her that it was for her own protection, but she did not believe him. He also knew that if he were to tell her that he loves her…it would just turn around and blow up in his face. Especially at this moment in time, regardless of how he felt, it just wasn't appropriate for him to admit his true feelings to her at the moment.

"I only told her that it was for her protection," he finally says.

Sad. Miserable. Blue. Melancholy.

* * *

**~One Week Later~**

She opens the front door to her apartment with four plastic shopping bags in hand, its contents weighing it down. Her back aches to no end and shows no intention of ceasing. Today marks the first day she has gone out shopping for her baby, and she will readily admit to going overboard in just one measly day. Three packages of neutral sleepers and onesies, socks, and a stuffed bear and giraffe were sufficient purchases for this week.

Lifting up the plastic bags only slightly in one hand, she sets them on top of the kitchen table. Stepping back, she rests a hand on her hip and takes in a deep breath. A couple of months ago she would have never felt this out of breath by just walking from her car to her apartment. She wants to forget about unloading the bags and go upstairs and take herself a well-deserved nap. Or a well-deserved nap in her opinion. Softly sighing, she moves her hand from her hip up to rest on the swell of her belly. Beneath her fingers she feels a soft bump following a series of little jabs.

The shopping bags forgotten, Lisbon moves to her crème coloured couch and sits on the end of it. In awe, she lies back and gently lifts up the front of her shirt. Smoothing her hand down the middle of the swell and past her belly button, she feels another quick jab and sees the flesh of her belly move like waves. Her heart nearly stops and tears begin to prick at her eyes as she feels these wonderful maternal sensations that only she can feel. Leaning further into the cushions, she sets her head back on the arm of the couch and lazily runs her fingertips up and down her belly almost to urge her unborn child to move again.

Beneath her hand, she feels her child react as strongly as before. The ripples dance around her flesh and she revels in the feelings of warmth spreading across her petite body. She smiles and snuggles further into the pillows to adjust the cushions below to her sore body in hopes of alleviating some of the pregnancy-induced aches and pains. The aches and pains and fatigue and overall stresses cause her muscles and limbs to feel heavy. Sighing to herself and shutting her eyes, she breathes deeply and feels herself drifting off into a somewhat peaceful slumber.

"_I did this to protect you! If I hadn't killed him you'd be dead! If you would have died, you wouldn't be here right now. Our child wouldn't be growing inside of you!"_

Our child…

…Maybe he was telling the truth.

She pulls herself from falling into a place of sleep and slowly moves to sit up. Jane wouldn't stoop to be that low even if he had just realized of her condition. She knew Jane, _knows_ him and he would never use a child that is as much as his as hers in such a way to gain sympathy. What if Red John really had the intention of going after her and Jane stopped it from happening? What if by killing Red John Jane wound up sacrificing his life and accepting punishment just for her?

A wave of nausea passes over her body and she pushes herself forward towards the small metal bin wrapped in plastic. She barely grabs it and pulls it to her before the bile in her throat comes spewing from her mouth. Shuddering, she keeps the bin close by as her stomach contents further empty into the trash bin. She needs to go back to the prison and see Jane again with a more open mind. That is the first thing she will do tomorrow morning, go to the prison and request a meeting with him, and then just maybe she will be able to negotiate something that will either lessen his sentence, or take him out completely. She is open to either, but ultimately prefers the latter.

**She's finally catching on.**


	5. I'll Make it Feel So Much Better

**I would like to thank those who subscribed and favourited, you guys are awesome! Also it's wise that I apologize for having another late update. This was meant to be out some time ago, but life (and an injury) got in the way. Actually, half of this was written during my maths class a couple of days ago because I had close to an hour of nothing. **

**I also really feel the need to dedicate this chapter to a couple of friends – or roommates/airplane neighbours – who have had to deal with my constant re-playing of music in order to write out this chapter. If I were them, I would have clobbered the person playing music over and over again with a flat iron. **

**Mia66**** – Thank you so much! That scene was really hard to write as I've never been pregnant and my cousin wouldn't answer my emails. **

**Blue ****– Thank you! **

**MentalistLover ****- Well in this one Jane **_**does **_**seem to have more of a reason to live. Thank you for reading!**

**Disclaimer: No, I don't own The Mentalist. I really wish I did, but I don't. **

Chapter Five: I'll Make it Feel So Much Better

She nervously fingers the chain around her neck, her fingertips sliding against the cool metal. As she sits in the hard plastic chair given to her by slightly older man by orders of his wife, she ponders her thoughts on what she is about to do. Yesterday morning she would have never even thought to come this close to Jane again, but she had to know whether or not he was right. Most of all she wants to know whether or not he is being dishonest with her. If he had killed Red John in order to save her life, then he also deserves freedom. If killing the psychotic serial killer was more so done out of an act of love – and very minimal revenge – then he doesn't deserve to be imprisoned.

Sighing to herself, she stands slowly to her feet as one of the prison guards announces they are ready for them. Her heart flutters in her chest as she places one hand over her swollen belly and starts towards the once-locked doors. People step aside to let her pass first and follow. She looks over her shoulder and sees a woman – probably in her early forties – ushering two children forward. They happily exclaim their happiness to see their father and she smiles proudly, and also slightly with remorse. She feels a pang of sadness overcome her and the children gave her another reason as to why she has to do her very best to get Jane out. Lisbon did not want _their _child to have to come to the jail and tell Jane across a metal table their latest academic, athletic, and personal feats.

"But mommy! We went there last time!" Lisbon smiles hearing the frustrated little boy talk o his mother. Ever since they had entered the waiting area the family had been having a little discussion as to where they were going to lunch after this.

Reaching up and running her hands across the lapels of her jacket, she moves through the doors and towards the visitation room. Her hands fall at her sides in fists as she starts to mentally prepare herself for the day. This encounter can only go in two directions: good or bad. She sincerely hopes it is the former rather than the latter so she and Jane could possibly reconcile. Letting her hands release at her sides, Lisbon stops only slightly behind the guard as he calls out and a buzzing sound is heard. The guard grasps onto the barred door and pushes it open and walks through it. He holds it open and gestures for everyone to begin filing in and find themselves an adequate seat. As she passes through the door frame, she gives the guard a slight smile of uneasiness and starts towards an open table at the far end of the room – in a corner. Carefully she sits down, mentally cursing herself for not remembering her issue last week as this place wasn't designed for pregnant visitors.

"The inmates will be out shortly." _Inmates _is an awfully dreadful thing to call them all. 'Loved ones' or 'friends' would be more appropriate. Especially if there are small children in the room bouncing around as they wait for their father.

Sighing softly to herself, Lisbon looks down and busies herself with picking dryer lint off the black shirt she is wearing. How the lint ever makes its way onto her clothes is a true mystery, but at this time it can easily take her mind off of things and preoccupy herself. Picking up the last one she can see and flicking it away, she looks up just in time to see Jane coming towards her in handcuffs. The image stirs a sense of upset within her and she wants nothing more than to lash out at everyone – sans Jane for some reason – and have be released from this prison.

"Lisbon?" His eyes widen in shock. Obviously he had no expectations of seeing her again so soon. "What are you doing here?"

His words stung, but she refuses to let him know this, "Tell me again," she demands and crosses her arms over her swollen belly.

Jane sits down across from her, his eyes searching her own for any reasoning to help him deduce as to why she was even here. "What do you want me to say? I have already said it several times," he leans back and glances off to the side almost in a way to pretend that she isn't there.

"This time I want you to swear on the life of our child and look at me in the eyes," she says almost a little too bitterly.

His eyes snap back to her, "The last time we saw each other, you made it pretty clear that you wanted me out of your life." For the second time his words stung. Lisbon looks up towards the ceiling and swallows the tears that she feels pricking on the corner of her eyes. His tone is immensely harsh and she does her best to cover it up and feign indifference.

She almost chokes, but instead sums up the courage to look at him the best she can, "You told me that it was for my protection."

He laughs and shakes his head, eyes flickering down to the floor, "And yet you called that crap."

Lisbon shuts her eyes and feels a tear slip past her eyelashes. She remembers everything she said to him and now she wishes that she could have controlled her anger more efficiently. Instead she took out all of the misery and pain she has felt these past months out on him in an unfair manner. Starting with refusing him the confirmation that his child is growing in her womb.

_"Teresa, I did this to protect you!"_

_"Don't you dare give me that crap again! You killed Red John for your own personal revenge without any second thought about the people around you!" her voice stays low as she refuses to make eye contact with him._

A couple more tears fall from her eyes and she reaches up with one of her hands and brushes them away quickly. The urge to sniffle grows, but she refuses to let it out. She did not want him to know that this new confrontation was causing her emotions to run wild and free.

"You also told me that you _loved me_ as in that was in past tense." She looks up at him and her heart sinks at the sight of him still not making eye contact with her. "And after fourteen times, yes I kept track, of proclaiming my reasoning as to why I killed Red John, you just now decide you want to consider it. Unbelievable," he shakes his head and turns back towards the guard and summons him.

"I was lying if it was in past tense," she says softly, her eyes now looking at the metal table. He pauses, but does not turn around. His reaction gives her a small shred of hope that he is still listening to her and that he will remain here to listen to her. "I still do love you."

"How do I know that you're not lying right now?" he does not turn to look at her, instead he stands up and allows the guard to take him by the bicep and lead him out of the visitation room.

Lisbon does not know – nor will she ever – why that angers her. Her fingers curl into her palm and she stands up abruptly. Her blood is boiling and no doubt people are starting to stare at her – at them – and she doesn't care at all. She feels her temples throbbing and she takes one step forward.

"If you weren't such a coward then you would try to hear me out," her voice is low and challenging. Jane stops at the door and the guard also stops. His shoulders roll upwards and she can tell that he is pondering as to what he should say next, so she continues, "The Patrick Jane I know wouldn't give up after just one encounter."

He slowly turns to face her and curls his fingers into a fist. His eyes darken and she can almost say that she sees his pupils dilate. Jane is fighting an internal battle about whether he should say something or just remain mute. Over the past few months he has definitely been working up some unresolved tension he needs to voice outward, and she knows even now Jane can't and won't keep quiet for long.

"Unless this is all an act," she challenges again.

She watches him adjust his stance by placing his feet more firmly onto the ground beneath him. He draws his fisted hands closer to his body and he breathes in and out, "It's not an act, Lisbon," his eyes flicker to her and he turns back to move towards his exit.

Lisbon falters and looks down at her swollen belly. Slowly she moves back down to her seat and leans forward onto the table. She suddenly feels hurt – emotionally – and can sense her tears forming at the corners of her eyes. She blinks and a single drop of tear rolls out of one of her eyes and down her cheek. Closing her eyes and trying to keep herself from crying in public, she runs her hand over her belly to try and calm herself. Instead of feeling relief like she wishes, an overwhelming sense of guilt begins to come over her. She clutches onto the fabric and moves her free hand up to tangle into her dark locks. Now she knows that she does indeed look like a royal mess.

As she blinks and inhales the air around her, she feels more drops of water cascade down her cheeks and hit the metal table below. She moves her hand off of her belly and brings it up to tangle with her hair opposite of her other hand, but before she can place it down, a warm and slightly calloused hand stops her. Instinctively she freezes and begins to remove her other hand. She looks up and blinks away the last couple of tears in her eyes until she sees the face of Patrick Jane looking down at her.

With his handcuffed hands, he pulls her around on her seat and he kneels before her. He looks at her with sorrow-filled eyes as he glances from her face down to her swollen abdomen. He sighs softly and lets his fingers run down the side of her face and down to her belly. Jane glances up one last time as if to ask her if it is all right if he touches her again. She nods as a confirmation and he places his hands on her. He stiffens as he runs his hands over the swell and she could see the tears begin to form in his eyes.

"I never stop loving you," he whispers, "Nor do I stop thinking about you."

She shuts her eyes and stiffens, "Please tell me."

He nods and moves his cuffed hands from her belly and grasps onto her hands. Jane takes a deep breath. "I had gotten a letter from Red John, and it said he wanted to kill you. He wanted to kill you slowly until you repeatedly screamed. The letter was in so much detail that all I could think about was killing him before he got to you."

_Jane picks up the balled up piece of paper and unfolds it. He readjusts it in his hand and silently curses when the corner slices into the side of his index finger. Looking down at his cut finger, he shakes it quickly and brings it up to his lips. The salty taste is so bitter and combines with the stinging sensation. _

_With his finger still between his lips, Jane looks back down at the paper and glances over it. _

"_Dear mister Jane, _

_It's been a long time hasn't it? I just wanted to tell you what I planned to do with your lovely friend Agent Lisbon. Over these past few months I have noticed how close the two of you have become, and I want you to know that I desire her blood. I want to feel her blood between my fingers as I stick my blade into her abdomen until the hilt reaches her soft flesh. I want the crimson blood to stain my hands red and watch her eyes grow wide with panic, fear, and pain. I want to run the knife over those soft feminine curves and leave a trail behind and to break her. Her screams would be my lullaby as I sleep and her face will forever be in my mind. She will die before and by my hand, and most of all you cannot do anything to stop it."_

_His finger has been long gone from his mouth and he feels rage bubbling up inside of him. It was no or never, and he knew he had to act fast soon. Red John still has not stopped nor will he ever until __he__ said that the game was over. The game where people lost their lives, sanity, and loved ones. He had to kill Red John. _

"I killed him to save a precious life, and that is now two. Instead of an award I get a jail cell for seven years," he says the last bit bitterly.

Lisbon shuts her eyes. She remembers Hightower having to work her ass off just to get seven years when the judge wanted ten. The argument was always that a mad serial killer that had haunted California for many years was now dead, but the fact that a civilian killed him meant that aforementioned person had to face consequences.

She opens her eyes and looks at Jane. She smiles softly, "I love you, Patrick."

* * *

Jane moves back into his prison cell, he feels lighter in a sense. It is a good feeling and he wants to hold onto it for as long as possible. Turning back towards the guard and holding his hands out, he smiles at the man who unlocks his handcuffs.

"Thank you," he says and turns back to face his cellmate.

Norman, who stands a few metres away from him, quirks an eyebrow up, "Did you have a better visit this go-round?"

Jane nods and moves towards his bed. Sitting down and leaning back, he sighs, "And she still loves me."

Norman smiles and moves to climb up to his bed, "Sounded like it. You two talked for awhile, I mean the guards had to take you two away from each other. My wife only left because the kids started getting hungry for their lunch," Jane is pretty sure that Norman had a nice visit with his family. Apparently the man only had a few rocky encounters with his wife for the first few months until she began to warm up to him again.

"How are the kids?" the smile has not left his face yet.

"Oh they're great. Chris received a one hundred on his spelling test and Casey finally learned how to ride a bike without training wheels," there is a sense of sorrow in Norman's voice, and it surprisingly takes Jane a few moments to realize why.

Norman is here – with him in jail – and has not been able to see his wife and children every day of his life. He misses out on academic achievements and milestones, and this thought makes Jane sober up from his feelings of happiness and come notice that he too will miss out on watching his child grow up. He will only see a handful of moments in the visiting areas for probably six years.

He leans into his cot and feels a tear unconsciously roll down the side of his cheek. His child will grow up not knowing that their father did a bad thing and cannot be seen regularly because of it. His child will not know what it is like to have a father on every birthday or every holiday for the first six years of life.

Another tear comes down.

**Hmm…where is the team in all of this and what ever shall they do? ;)**

**Also: I purposely didn't let Baby Jane show his/her (I know the gender, 'tis a secret) presence by kicking. That would have been too cliché. **


	6. Everything Comes Into Focus

**Well, after some delay here's the sixth chapter! I hope everyone enjoys! I would also like to extend a thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, favourited, and subscribed. You guys are amazing! :)**

**Chris - Oh I love you too! Thank you! :3**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Mentalist. I asked for it for my 18****th**** birthday, but I doubt I can get it.**

Chapter Six: Everything Comes Into Focus

Cho leans back into his desk chair and clicks his pen three times. For the past five minutes he has been staring intently at the black telephone sitting on the edge of his desk. Last night he had called Kaitlin Stark – Jane's lawyer – in hopes of speaking to her before she went to bed. This plan had failed and he decided to retry in the morning at around ten.

"Hey Cho, watcha doing?" his gaze moves from the telephone up to the tall agent walking into the bullpen, "Because you've been staring at the phone for awhile. What's the matter?"

Cho shifts in his chair and leans forward to drop his pen on the wood desk. He breathes audibly and looks up at his friend, "I have been trying to contact Stark since last night."

Rigsby quirks his eyebrow and leans against his desk and crosses his arms over his chest, "_Kaitlin_ Stark? Jane's lawyer Kaitlin Stark?" Rigsby remembers her entrance into the CBI headquarters a little over seven months ago.

_Rigsby looks up from his barely engaging game of Hearts just in time to see a woman in her late twenties to early thirties walk into the bullpen. She is well groomed – her brown hair deftly pulled into a tight bun and her suit void of wrinkles. She clutches a briefcase tightly as she stands firmly in the bullpen's entrance with a melancholy expression on her face. Wordlessly, Rigsby already knew why she is here. _

_Ten hours ago Patrick Jane had killed Red John and has since been refusing a lawyer, especially a good one. He sits in an interrogation room with his hands handcuffed together behind his back. The last time he – Rigsby – had walked into the observation room behind the one-sided glass, Jane's gaze remained fixed on the metal table before him. He made absolutely no movements and behaved as if he was in shock. _

"_Hi, my name is Kaitlin Stark, and I am Mr. Jane's attorney," she straightens her suit jacket, "Agent Hightower called me."_

_Rigsby nods and moves to stand up, "Uh, right this way," he moves towards her and she moves to the side to let him slide through the entrance. _

_He gestures for her to follow him, "Jane killed Red John ten hours ago. He's been in the interrogation room ever since," he says when he stops in front of a door, "Would you like to speak to Agent Lisbon?"_

_He knows where Lisbon is. She is exactly where she was since Jane came in, and that was behind the one-sided glass. She sits and watches him with tears barely running down her cheeks as she tries to remain stoic and void of emotion, but Rigsby knows that she cannot help but feel like she had not done her best to keep Jane from killing Red John. _

_Stark shook her head, "No, Agent Rigsby, that would not be necessary," she offers him a small smile and moves to push the door open. He stays by the doorframe and quickly glances inside the door to see Jane in the exact same position. Except this time he is crying for his lost family and Lisbon. _

_Rigsby looks down and walks away. _

"Yeah, I remember Stark," Rigsby nods, "Why?"

"I have an idea. The coroner said that Red John had died twelve hours before Lisbon called it in. Maybe we can prove that there is a problem with the timing and get Jane out of jail."

Rigsby steps forward and leans onto Cho's desk, "Wait! It was _twelve_ hours before? There's a two hour hole?" Cho nods, "That could mean that Jane didn't do it! The boss said she found Jane right after he did it, and she wouldn't lie about this type of thing. Not with Red John. I mean Jane was telling her over and over that he killed Red John…"

"And he was covered in the man's blood," Cho states bluntly, "But he could have easily smeared it all over himself and planted his prints on the murder weapon so the evidence would point to him. He wanted Red John dead by his hand, it could have been his only reaction to finding him already gone."

Rigsby blinks at his coworker, "So do you really think we could get Jane out of jail?"

Cho nods, "I do."

* * *

Lisbon sits across from Jane, her hands resting on top of her swollen belly. A month has come and gone since they had reconciled, and this meant she was a month closer to having their baby. She tries not to think about the fact that Jane would not be present as she delivers the child in her womb and tries to make up for it by seeing Jane on average three times a week as of late. She laughs and feels the corners of her mouth move upwards. How the man before her could make her laugh and cry within minutes is beyond her, but she now treasures these moments.

"How is the baby?" he asks her, his smile still bright and cheerful, "is he giving you much trouble?"

Ever since he had found out that their baby was a boy, Jane could not help but hope that his son would act just like him. For some reason it just seems so fitting that the whole "like father, like son" thing would apply to them. Of course he hopes some of Lisbon's personality traits will be noticeable within the baby, but he secretly hopes that it will be mostly him. He always smiles at the thought and spends moments of his days telling Norman how his son will be just like him sans the whole going to jail part.

She softly nods her head, "Yes, your son likes to keep me up at night and punch at my bladder."

He cocks his head to the side, "I'm just curious. Why is he _my _son when he keeps you up at night and causes discomfort?" a smile begins to betray his seriousness, "and then why is he _our _son when he starts giving you soft little jabs that make you grow so emotional?"

Lisbon straightens, "Because…" she mentally kicks herself when she cannot articulate a better and wittier comment to say. All she can easily think of is that Jane is a hyperactive and overgrown child that can also get on the nerves of people easily, and the baby gets like that, all she can think of is how much this baby is already like Patrick Jane.

"Because what?" he teases and smirks at her.

She presses her brows together, "Because like his father he can never settle down when he should," she places one hand on the side of her belly when she feels a quick jab right next to her belly button. The sudden kick makes her jump, a slight "Oh!" coming from her mouth before she can even stifle it.

"What's wrong?" she finds it funny that he can go from teasing to over protective in less than a few seconds, "Did he move?" she nods at him and he waits for a few moments before saying something else, "Can I feel your belly?"

She stands up from her stool and walks around to lean against the metal table. Reaching down, she takes her smaller hands in his larger ones and brings them up to rest against the side of her belly. She watches as Jane's smile grows larger as he softly strokes his fingers up and down her rapidly expanding abdomen. His fingers barely brush over her cloth-covered swell as the baby begins to set off a series of kicks. Jane's eyes widen and he presses his hand more firmly to her and feels the baby's pokes and prods. He looks down and his eyes water around the corners.

"That's our baby, Teresa."

She nods, "I have something for you," she shifts and reaches down into her blue jean pocket. She slowly pulls out a piece of paper that looks as if it has been folded numerous times. Taking in a deep breath, she holds it out to him and he reluctantly moves one of his cuffed hands from her belly and grasps the paper. Flipping his finger underneath the fold, he opens it up and he nearly feels the dam break.

On the paper was their son. In his hand he sees a picture of his son that dates a week ago, and he can easily make out the head, body, and little hands and feet connected to the limbs. He smiles and leans forward to press a soft kiss on Lisbon's swollen belly, and right over their unborn son.

* * *

Once again in the last year Rigsby sits across from Kaitlin Stark. The only difference is, that this time he has Cho by his side and both of them are determined to remove Jane from his prison. Stark sits delicately on Grace's wheeled, her hands folding over her lap. Today she is supposedly on vacation, but has been called in by Cho to discuss "serious urgent matters."

The two agents brief her over the discrepancies that they have discovered, or actually Cho, in the last few days. She just blinks at them, wondering why the hell she was never informed of some of this information months ago. Back then she could have had the chance of keeping Patrick Jane out of jail all together despite how badly he had wanted to give up on living his life freely.

"So you're saying is that Red John was killed two hours earlier than what Agent Lisbon claims?" the agents nod at her, "Are you sure this is a legitimate claim?" they nod again and she sighs, "Well, I can reopen this case and start a new investigation, but I highly doubt that this will get Mr. Jane out of jail. He admitted to doing it, he had the Red John's blood on him, and his fingerprints on the murder weapon. Agent Lisbon could have easily gotten there later."

Cho crosses his arms over his chest, "But that does not explain why she had dried blood on her body when she brought Jane in. Red John could have easily been killed by someone else, and Jane could have easily felt like he had been cheated and acted out on those feelings."

Stark nods, "That is true. Agent Rigsby, what do you think?"

Rigsby nods, "Yeah, I think that's possible. Jane really wanted revenge on the murderous son of a bitch; I wouldn't be surprised if he got angry if he figured out he was already dead when he found him. Red John was wearing gloves, right? He could have killed himself and known Jane would do something stupid."

The young attorney nods again, "I'll talk to Agent Hightower, judge, and the DA. Then I'll make some calls."

**Any little boy-name suggestions? ;)**

**On a more serious note, a good childhood friend of mine was recently diagnosed with cancer. Please, please keep her in your thoughts and prayers! **


	7. Lights are Shining on Our Faces

**I would like to thank everyone for their reviews, subscriptions, and favourting. You guys seriously rock! Anywho, I would also like to mention yet again that my friend with cancer is doing slightly better than she has been previously. This chapter is definitely dedicated to her, and also to the friend I have in Japan. **

**BrightLights - Thank you! This chapter offers a little bit more insight to it. Thank you for the names to add to the list!**

**Anara - Thank you! I actually had it planned out since the beginning that baby Jane would indeed be a boy, and I really like those names! Thank you!**

**Chris - Thank you so much! **

**Disclaimer: No, I do not own The Mentalist. But it is on my birthday list. **

Chapter Seven: Lights are Shining on Our Faces

Lisbon tightens her grip on the briefcase in her hand and presses the button to floor level three. At this time she could already tell that today was going to be interesting and yet bizarre. She does not exactly know why her brain is telling her this, and she half-contemplated calling in sick today, but duty calls. To top it all off…it is also a Monday, and by God did she hate Mondays. They were annoying, and so were most drivers in Sacramento on this day.

She steps off the elevator and walks down the corridor towards her office. Taking a few moments, she pauses and glances into the bullpen. Everything seems normal: Cho starting up his computer and reaching for a nearby novel, Rigsby rifling through his take out bag from a fast food restaurant, and Grace brushing past her and heading into the bullpen with a coffee in hand.

"Morning boss," Grace smiles and maneuvers to sit down at her desk. The redheaded agent sets her coffee down softly on the desk and looks up at Lisbon, "How's the baby today?"

Lisbon steps back and looks down at her swollen belly. She is tired, her back hurts – scratch that, killing her -, and the baby thinks it's funny to sleep be stationary _now_. Looking back up at the happy agent, she smiles, "He's fine, Grace."

The redheaded agent nods happily and Lisbon turns towards her office. She does not get far before she hears Rigsby's quiet voice behind her, _"Did you get Stark to look over the evidence?"_

Lisbon raises her eyebrow and takes a step closer to her office. Stark was Jane's attorney when he was on trial, why would she be looking at evidence now? Jane had pleaded and been found guilty.

"_Yeah, I'm meeting her at the café for lunch to talk to her about it. She noticed the time discrepancy too,"_ Lisbon's eyes open in alarm at the sound of Cho's voice in realization. They were looking for possible evidence to get Jane out of jail, and they were using _that_ time discrepancy. She had called the local cops and Hightower two hours after she had found Jane because they were preoccupied. Looking down, Lisbon blushes and heads towards her office.

This was going to be interesting.

* * *

Grace leans back in her chair and swivels around to look at the boys. She clicks her pen a couple of times and chews on the inside of her cheek. The boys were up to something, and they weren't telling her. That would mean this plan was either something they were planning for her, or something illegal. But then again they mentioned the name _'Stark,' _which gives her some hope that it isn't illegal.

"Yes, Van Pelt?" her eyes snap to Cho, as he looks straight at her.

Her eyes look to the right, "Huh?" then back to Cho, "Oh, I didn't say anything."

Cho leans forward onto his desk, "You look like you want to say something," Rigsby turns to look at her as he munches on his breakfast sandwich, "What do you have to say?" Cho asks again.

Swallowing, she looks at them both, "What are you doing?"

"Sitting here. Waiting for you to tell me what's on your mind."

Grace shakes her head, "No, I'm wondering what you're doing with lawyer," she takes in a breath, "Jane's lawyer of all of them."

Cho leans back into his chair, almost mirroring Grace. Rigsby glances over at his friend and sets his sandwich back down on top of the wrapper. The larger agent takes one last swallow and looks at Cho, suddenly feeling the tension grow thicker in the bullpen. Grace narrows her eyes and looks over at Rigsby, her eyes immediately softening.

"Wayne, what's going on?" she asks him softly.

Rigsby opens his mouth, ready to reply, but Cho cuts him off, "We're trying to get Jane out of jail. There's a time discrepancy of two hours. Red John was dead for two hours before Lisbon called it in."

Grace's eyes widen and her jaw drops, "What?" she immediately stands to her feet and walks over to the Cho's desk. "You're telling me that Jane has been innocent this whole time while the real culprit walks?"

Cho shakes his head, "No, no one else killed Red John. If Jane didn't kill him, he did so himself," there was a pregnant pause, "Jane did kill him, and Lisbon didn't report everything correctly. That's why there's a discrepancy."

"How do you know that?" Rigsby scoots his chair closer to his colleagues, "Lisbon wouldn't lie about something like this, even if Jane is involved. It's too big."

Cho's voice lowers, "What if she didn't?" he looks at both of his fellow colleagues.

Grace sighs and leans further into the desk, "Jane shouldn't even be in jail," Cho and Rigsby look up at Grace with sudden alarm. The rookie agent usually follows the rules when Jane isn't around to manipulate her into doing some stunt. For her to suggest that Jane shouldn't be in jail seems like a pretty big step for her. "He should be here, with us. It would make the boss feel better, I mean she seemed so upset for a long time."

"Jane is the baby's father."

Grace and Rigsby immediately turn to look at Cho. The man does not falter his gaze nor does he look away. The two fellow agents continue to look at him, their eyes wide with shock. Grace shifts her feet uncomfortably and tosses her head to the side in hopes to nullify the awkwardness emitting from Cho's previous comment.

Rigsby shakes his head and pushes himself backwards in his chair, "Seriously man?"

Cho shrugs, "It makes sense. It explains the two hour discrepancy and why she's pregnant." A couple of nearby agents glance in Cho's general direction and shake their heads.

Rigsby reaches for her half eaten breakfast sandwich and balls it up. He turns and tosses it into the trash bin, now experiencing feelings of disgust. He shoots Cho an irate look and shakes his head again.

"I'm never going into _that_ car again."

Cho leans back in his swivel chair, "You were in it just last week."

* * *

Lisbon watches as her team abandons Cho's desk area rather rapidly. Whatever Cho had just recently said, really turned them off at the conversation. She still felt some itching sensation to know what they were previously talking about, and especially if it was about Stark and the time discrepancy. Should she confront Cho? Rigsby? Grace? Or maybe should she go ahead and call the attorney and demand to be kept in the loop. Also she could discuss these matters with Jane. This was his freedom and future, and now she truly felt as though he did not deserve jail time. Red John's death was justified. As selfish as it sounds, if Jane hadn't killed the sociopathic killer, than their son would cease to exist and she would most likely be six feet under.

Looking down at the paper in front of her, she smiles and picks up her pen to quickly sign off on it. She sighs and flips it over onto the rest of the stack and pushes her chair back. The unborn baby inside her has just decided to move around within her, and she smiles and places her hand on the side of her swollen abdomen. She deftly runs her hand down the side of her grey-cloth covered belly immediately feeling a reaction. Sighing once more, she takes her free hand to reach into the briefcase in a nearby chair and pulls out a book.

_Pregnancy for Dummies_ is a book that she bought a few weeks ago. While on an overnight case down in Los Angeles, she picked the book up at a nearby Barnes & Noble. Leaning back in her chair, she opens the book and straightens out the dog-eared page. Sighing to herself and settling one hand on top of the swell, and she begins to read.

After a few moments she pauses, lowering her book and looking over towards her team. Squaring her shoulders, she chews on her bottom lip and slowly folds the book over and sets it on the table. Slowly she stands up and walks through the doorframe of her office and towards her team. Taking a deep breath and tossing her head from side to side, she walks into the bullpen and glances around. The bullpen has just began to grow busy as agents and guards and techs walk in with foamy coffees and bid each other a good morning.

She stops in front of Cho's desk, pretty confident that her ever-stoic agent would give her a straightforward comment as to what she was wondering. Taking in a deep breath, she looks down at him, and he eyes her slightly curiously. "Cho, can I ask you something?"

He nods, "Sure boss," and he leans forward, clicks something on his computer, and then leans back.

Her hands ball into fists at her side as she sums up some courage, "What is the time discrepancy that you were talking about?" Grace and Rigsby immediately look up from the desks towards them.

Lisbon keeps herself from looking over her shoulder at the two agents. She already knew that they were eyeing her from behind and doing over-exaggerated gestures at each other and wonder how she knew what they had probably just finished talking about.

Cho leans back in his swivel chair casually, "I found a time discrepancy of two hours. The coroner stated that Red John had been dead for two hours by the time he arrived on the scene. It didn't take him long to get there, and you said you had just found Jane by Red John's body," he pauses, "There's a two hour window essentially. Red John wasn't that freshly killed when you called it in."

Cho was a fine damn agent, and Lisbon blanches at his revelation. Honestly this comes to now surprise that he has found this out. She also knew Cho and the team were most likely trying to get Jane out of jail, saying he was falsely accused…even though he admitted to having killed Red John several times.

She swallows, "Yeah, I suppose there is," her eyes nervously look around the room, and she can't believe that she is going to do this. For months she told herself she wouldn't do this, but ever since she reconciled with Jane…she feels that she has to. Not only is it out of love, but also out of love for their child.

"Cho, there's something we should enter into evidence. Red John sent Jane a letter about a week before his death."

* * *

Cho sits in a café chair, his hands wrap around the cover of _Moby Dick_ by Herman Melville as he waits for Stark to arrive. He is about halfway done and thoroughly enjoying the riveting text for the probably the tenth time. On his bookshelf he has stashed away in his living room, Melville's novel is rarely even on the shelf. Sighing and reaching for the Styrofoam cup, he hears the chime of the door opening and he hesitates. Looking up, he sees a woman enter the room. Her mousy brown hair tied up in a wet bun and her face void of make up. She pauses and looks around the room, her eyes making contact with Cho's. She nods and heads in his direction, only momentarily glancing at the novel cover.

"_Moby Dick_, a good book. In a way kind of reminds me of Mr. Jane's obsession over Red John." She says this simply as she gracefully sits down opposite of Cho, "Agent Cho, have you found anymore evidence that I can use to help get Jane out of jail?"

Cho folds the book page over and sets it down on the table. He leans forward and curls his fingers together, "Yes, I have. Jane received a letter a week before Red John died. It stated that he had planned to capture, torture, and eventually kill Agent Lisbon. Jane was provoked. It also said absolutely nothing as to where of Red John's whereabouts."

Stark sighs and leans into the chair's back. She reaches up and begins to rub her temples, "I'm going to need to see this letter. I mean, that's the only way I could possibly get Jane out of jail. It's our only shot."

Cho nods, "I'll work on it. You will get it in the next day or so."

* * *

After lunch, Lisbon headed to the prison. She had no intention to see him today due to a massive amount of deskwork she had to get done, but she had to talk to him. Jane needs to know that people were working on getting him out of prison, and he needs to know about the two-hour time discrepancy, which he definitely did not know about.

So she sits in an uncomfortable hard plastic chair and twiddles her thumbs over her swollen baby, and is surrounded by men and women in tattoos of various shapes and sizes. Normally she would not have feelings of intimidation, but due to her pregnancy, it isn't hard to make her feel intimidated. The intimidation is usually followed by a strong protective maternal instinct.

A guard enters the room, "They are ready for everyone now," and gestures for them to follow.

Lisbon slowly stands and tightens the fabric of her black sweater around her pregnant frame. Chewing on her bottom lip, she proceeds towards the door and through the frame and down the corridor. This is an all too familiar action, but this time it almost feels like someone is forcing her to see Jane today. She does not particularly like this feeling. Sighing to herself and briefly closing her eyes as she suddenly feels the air conditioning brush over her skin, she opens them and is right in front of the visiting room. Looking over her shoulder, she sees people waiting eagerly and impatiently as the guard sticks his keys in and turns the lock. He steps aside and gestures, and Lisbon immediately sees Jane.

He looks happy to see her. His smile is large over his face and he sits up straight, but when his eyes catch the expression on her face, everything sobers. His posture does not falter, but he definitely takes notice of her stance as she moves towards him. She sighs and sits across from him slowly, and he turns around to face her.

"Teresa?" she does not say anything, for she does not know what to say to him without just blurting it out. Or maybe she should just blurt it out…

"Teresa?" he asks again, "Are you all right? Is the baby-."

She shakes her head, feeling her eyes grow watery, "No Jane, he's fine. I'm f-fine." Tears flow from her eyes. She feels so overwhelmed. If everything goes correctly in a sense, Jane could be out of prison soon. Their son wouldn't have to grow up without a father present.

Lisbon leans forward and takes his handcuffed hands in her own small ones. She runs her thumb over his knuckles and smiles, "There's a time discrepancy," he raises an eyebrow, not knowing what she is talking about.

"What time discrepancy?"

She smiles, "I didn't call Cho as soon as I found you," his eyes light up in recognition. Jane could have sworn that she would have immediately called Cho after he killed Red John, but apparently she had waited after their love making. How could he have missed this?

Jane looks down at their hands and pulls out of her grasp, only to pull her hands into his seconds after. Maybe things could be getting better for them. Maybe Jane could actually become free and actually see their son grow up. He already felt a pang of regret to an extent for not seeing him grow inside his mother for a long time, and then only to miss out on several candid moments. It was painful, but not as painful as it would have been if Red John had killed Lisbon.

He smiles and lifts up her hands to his lips and presses a kiss to her knuckles. She smiles at him and her heart momentarily stops briefly. It takes her only a matter of moments before she remembers that she has to ask him one important question that would definitely impact everything.

Clearing her throat, she looks up at him, "Patrick," he smiles up at her, no doubt feeling equal relief, "Where is that letter that Red John sent you?"

He pauses and he grips onto her hands tighter. Jane audibly gulps and looks down at the table, "I buried it in the backyard of my house in Malibu. It should be back in the envelope."

She nods, a wave of relief overcoming her. Maybe they actually have a shot at this.

**Don't get me wrong, this is still going to be fairly angsty. I have a reputation to live up to, but I also have a reputation for giving a happy-ish ending ;)**


	8. Time Waits For No One

**Okay, right now I have no (personal) computer and I had to write half of this on Google Documents. It was annoying and hard, but I got it done. Right now I haven't the foggiest idea when I can easily get chapter nine out, but hopefully soon. And believe me...it really bothers me to not have a computer on me that I can easily use. Once again this is dedicated to my friend with cancer, my heart continues to go out to her.**

**Also, thank everyone who read, reviewed, subscribed, and favourited! You guys are seriously absolutely amazing(:  
**

**BrightLights: Thank you so much! And don't worry, they're going to start furthering their plans...:)**

**Disclaimer: Nope.**

Chapter Eight: Time Waits For No One

Jane cautiously pushes the door open and steps inside. The complete utter silence of the house has his senses on high alert and he can almost hear the erratic beating of his heart in his chest. Taking a deep breath, he heads towards the staircase and reaches his hand up to grasp onto the railing. Firming up his grip, he ascends up the wooden stairs – cringing when he steps on a squeaker – and finally reaches the top. Throughout the entire duration, his heart has to have escalated to the tipping point. Recently he had received a note telling him of what Red John had in store for the future, and it involved killing her. She was the one woman he wants to put his life back on track. She is the one woman who keeps him sane and most of all, whom he can trust.

He stops outside his bedroom door, his hand barely hovering over the brass knob. Behind the hard wood he hears laughter. It's haunting, menacing, and horrifying all at the same time and he quickly reaches down to grasp the knob, but he pauses at the soft sound of a soft whimper. It belongs to a woman.

"Why are you doing this?" he hears and his heart all but stops. Red John is holding none other than Teresa Lisbon behind the door, no doubt savouring in his plans to torture and kill her, but just waiting for the right audience: Him.

There are no words after hers, and Jane finds this as his cue to turn the knob to the right and push into his barren master suite. Inside the bedroom he finds blood everywhere. The once-white walls have been painted red and the carpet is stained. Thicker droplets of the crimson liquid slowly descend down the walls and onto his mattress on the far side. A woman with mousy brown hair lies flat on her back, eyes and mouth open wide in silent screams as she pleads to her captor in death. Her has been slashed open and her chest punctured, and her once pristine toenails are stained. Lying over her midsection is a small child with curly blonde hair. Dry tear stains run down her cheeks as she lifelessly clings to her dead mother. Even in death, the love between a mother and child is still ever-present.

At this sight, Jane stumbles and falls back slightly. He catches himself on the brass doorknob, but pauses when he suddenly feels warm blood seep through his fingers on contact. He looks down, his hands are no covered in a thick coat of blood and he has to fight the urge to vomit. Breathing hard in hopes of trying to re-claim the control of his stomach, he looks up and sees a petite woman lying in a fetal position in the middle of the floor. A few moments ago, much like the blood on the doorknob, she was not there. Blinking curiously now, he takes a step towards the body of a woman hugging onto her midsection. Kneeling down, he takes in the pale lifeless eyes of Teresa Lisbon.

"Hey Patrick! Wake up!" Jane feels someone rocking his shoulder back and forth almost violently. With slight effort, he tries to shake them off, but the shakes only grow more vigorous, "Wake up! You're having a nightmare!"

Jane jolts awake when he suddenly feels the palm of a hand make contact with the flesh of his cheek. His eyes are open wide and his chest is heaving and he knows that he is indeed disorientated. He blinks and looks around the room and concludes with a sigh of both great sadness and relief that he is in a prison cell.

"That must've been some dream. You were shaking the entire bunk!" Norm's face softens a little, "Are you okay?"

Jane blinks, feeling wetness seep around his eyelids, "Yeah, I'm fine." He shuts his eyes and reaches up with his thumb and pointer finger to brush the runny tears from his eyes. Opening his eyes, he looks up at Norm, "Not to worry, I've had a lot worse than that."

Norm steps back and shrugs his shoulders, "All right then." He turns and starts to climb back up his bunk and Jane just leans back against his pillows. There was absolutely no way he was going to get anymore sleep tonight. Whenever he would relive the deaths of Angela and Charlotte – and occasionally seeing Lisbon die – he could never go back to sleep after wards. Or at least he couldn't sleep without human contact, and it would be rather odd to ask that of Norm.

Sighing to himself, he shuts his eyes and drifts off to his memory palace. He revels in meeting running off with Angela and trying to make do with little supplies they had and then later their marriage. It was small and beautiful, but was interrupted by Danny. Jane chuckles to himself at the memory of his wife getting that call and having to leave immediately to get her baby brother out of jail, Danny's first words to her were priceless. Next he remembers Angela coming up to him and placing a white stick in his hands. Overwhelming joy and pride had come over him as his heart swelled. His love for both Angela and Charlotte grew when he experienced his baby girl's first kick in the womb. Angela had been asleep with a baby name's book draped over her chest. It was he that experienced the first ever kick, but he never told Angela this. Then he revels in Charlotte's birth. To him, it was borderline miraculous that a small baby like that could grow inside of his beloved wife for nine months. The corners of Jane's lips upturn into a smile at the fond memory, and then his mind drifts to Lisbon.

* * *

Two weeks. It had taken Cho and Rigsby two weeks to find Red John's letter buried in the yard of Jane's Malibu house. Lisbon completely understood it taking the boys two, maybe three days to find the letter, but no, it had taken them two weeks. Lisbon found it extremely superfluous and would often demand reasons as to why they had not found it yet, and then afterwards she would feel awful for being very demanding in the first place and would bring them something to eat. This was something that Rigsby appreciated whole-heartedly.

Now she sat on the soft cream coloured couch in her office with the translucent bag holding the letter. She has not even begun to read it yet for fear as to what she may find with it. On the way back from Malibu, Cho had read it aloud in the car to Rigsby, and both men have not looked at her straight in the eye since they returned. Taking a deep breath, she sums up her courage and begins to read:

"Dear mister Jane,  
It's been a long time hasn't it? I just wanted to tell you what I planned to do with your lovely friend Agent Lisbon. Over these past few months I have noticed how close the two of you have become, and I want you to know that I desire her blood. I want to feel her blood between my fingers as I stick my blade into her abdomen until the hilt reaches her soft flesh. I want the crimson blood to stain my hands red and watch her eyes grow wide with panic, fear, and pain. I want to run the knife over those soft feminine curves and leave a trail behind and to break her. Her screams would be my lullaby as I sleep and her face will forever be in my mind. She will die before and by my hand, and most of all you cannot do anything to stop it."  
Her breath catches in her throat and her hands begin to quiver. Over the last decade plus, she has received many death threats, but nothing like this. Red John's letter gives her a haunting feeling, and it feels like he has observed her for several years. Unlike many of the perps she has dealt with, Red John was the only one who wanted to associate a knife with her "soft feminine curves."

Setting the encased letter down on the pillow beside her, she shuts her eyes and nervously places her quivering hands on her swollen belly. She takes a breath in and then back out to try and calm down. Beneath her palm, she feels her son poke at her, almost to let her know that they are both okay.

"Boss," her eyes snap open at the sound of Grace's voice, "Uh, Stark is here and she would like to look over the letter. Can I have it," the rookie agent catches her eyes, "Please?"

Lisbon nods and reaches over to take the letter in her hands, "I'll take it to her, Grace, thank you," the rookie agent is reluctant to let her do so, but nods her head in agreement. Lisbon smiles and turns back to the letter, her fingers brushing over the simple yet-meaningful words and she realizes that she was a fool for letting Jane go to jail.

She slowly stands to her feat and sighs. Stretching, she reaches up to her eyes and wipes away the slight dampness that would give away her soft tears escaping from where they belong. Lisbon gives her belly one last rub and sets out into the bullpen with the letter held tightly in her hand.

She stops in the doorway before entering the bullpen completely and rakes her eyes over the scene before her. Grace is leaning against Rigsby's desk, no doubt telling him that she - Lisbon - is coming in soon with the letter. The rookie had almost definitely seen her cry in her office, even though it was only slight. Not even she noticed the tears escaping their boundaries. Rigsby's face confirms what she is expecting the conversation is over when he nods and softly says a reply. Grace had not yet read the note, but she did know that it is frightening.

Lisbon looks down at the letter in her hand and back up again. She clears her throat to get the Grace and Rigsby's attention. They both turn to look at her, giving her a 'deer in headlights look' or 'the kid who was just caught with his hand in the cookie jar' type of look. Lisbon draws her lips into a thin line before allowing them to smile pleasantly. Moving her hand more into the middle, but careful not to let the letter touch her belly, she steps more firmly into the bullpen.

"Where's Cho?" she asks, noticing that Cho is missing. It also seems like a very nice conversation starter.

Rigsby clears his throat, "He's getting Stark downstairs. He said that he'll be back up soon," Grace nods at his statement in confirmation. "Are you okay?"

Lisbon blinks and fights the urge to say some snide remark. Over these past few months that's all she has gotten. Questions. Numerous pointless questions all asking about her sanity. At first it made her feel comforted, like she wasn't alone in all of this, but now it is getting old fast. Yes, seeing the letter does faze her, but she is willing to go through the discomfort of it if it means that Jane could possibly get out of jail in the near future. It also helps confirm everything that she has been wondering in the past few months. It lets her know that Jane wasn't just talking in the interrogation rooms, and that he was and still is not playing her.

She straightens up, "I'm fine, Rigsby," he nods and looks over her shoulder. No doubt Cho is coming up behind her with Stark in tow.

Clutching the letter tighter in her hand, she steps further into the bullpen and out of the door frame. She turns just in time to see Cho maneuver through the space she was just occupying and motioning for Stark to enter. The young lawyer nods at him and makes slight eye contact with Lisbon. Stark stiffens and tries to offer a small smile.

"Agent Lisbon, how are you?" her eyes glance down at Lisbon's swollen belly, "And the baby?"

Lisbon nods, "We're good," she pats the side of her stomach with her free hand. Taking in a deep breath, she takes one last glance at the letter in her hands before holding it up to Stark, "We found this outside of Jane's home as of late."

Stark looks at it and takes hold of it from Lisbon's hands. Her eyes scan over it quickly and she cautiously turns it over. "It took two weeks to find this?" she says quietly.

Lisbon looks over at Cho and Rigsby. Both men are trying to find a place to fixate their eyes on, neither are comfortable with letting the lawyer know how long it took them to find a measly piece of paper. Lisbon looks away, the corners of her lips upturning in a smile. She likes Stark. The woman definitely can keep the men on her team on their toes and give an entertaining show to both her and Van Pelt. She also can't help but wonder where in the world Hightower found her, and why she would entrust Jane's case to a lawyer who has barely been out of school.

"No, it just took twelve days," Lisbon is brought out of her slight reverie at the sound of Rigsby's defensive voice. He's trying to cover his ass and probably a little bit of his dignity. The man is no doubt an amazing agent, but he can act like a doofus from time to time. She has to suppress a laugh at his words by biting the inside of her cheek.

Stark looks to the side at Cho, "But that's still a long time..." and she stops talking at the look Cho gives her and glances down and begins to fiddle with her visitor's badge with one hand.

Lisbon smiles and turns around to leave the bullpen.

"Not only do we need to reopen this case, but we have to completely redo his trial. With this new evidence it can prove that what Jane was saying is true. That he really did kill Red John in order to save Agent Lisbon's life!" Lisbon stops and turns to look at the lawyer. "The only problem is that numerous witnesses have said that Jane goes berserk whenever Red John is involved, and even you, Agent Lisbon, said that Jane spoke to you of his plans to kill the man," Stark nervously fiddles with the paper, "At best it could get him out, because there are also people saying that you two have gotten closer since you took him on as your consultant."

Lisbon stops and leans into the door frame. New hope floods into her being, but at the same time it softly falters. There is hope that Jane could be released from prison in the near future, but there is still the ever-looming possibility that he could remain. Due to his constant vocalizing of his plans to kill Red John, his words could keep him in jail. Even with the letter in the chain of custody, they could still have hell getting him out of jail.

"What are we going to do, boss?" she hears Cho ask her, and she knows exactly how he is standing behind her right now. His feet plant on the ground firmly a shoulder-width apart and his arms are crossing over his chest. She can feel his stare in the back of her head.

As she hears the sound of a desk chair moving behind her and feel hitting the wooden floor beneath their feet, she knows everyone is standing expectantly behind her. She looks forward, her eyes not training on anything in particular, and she says something so inaudible at first. Tears begin to form in her eyes and she knows that she is probably risking her career because the time discrepancy is her fault. It could be shed to light during this trial, but then again it may not be questioned. She feels so many things right now: hope, fright, fatigue, and worry.

Slowly she turns to her team plus Stark and makes eye contact. She knows tears have long since formed and began to run down her cheeks, but she does not care right now. Because time waits for no one, she can no longer wait.

"Reopen the case."

**Does anyone have a Twitter? I do. And I am starting to get addicted to tweeting in a sense. Link is in my profile, but if you don't feel like checking that out, here it is: Just_Mosie. Exact same as my pen name(:**


	9. Interim

**hi. **

**So I've been awkwardly away for over a month...and I really don't have a good excuse (unless you count endless personal issues that have come up time and time again). Well, I do have good news. I'm officially done with high school on Friday (graduating too!) and can't wait to wave bye-bye to that high school. Seriously, I'm tired of wearing them hideous uniforms and being forced to write superfluous amounts of papers for a stinking grade. And I've also been distracted by Twitter..it's so addicting and I really need to avoid it for a little bit. **

**Okay, so I'll like to thank those who subscribed and the one person who favourited! You guys rock and are amazing! **

**MentalistLover: Thank you so much!:)**

**BrightLights: Twitter is addicting. I don't advise getting one unless you have a lot of free time on your hands. Thank you so much! :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Mentalist or its characters. I only own Kaitlin Stark...and she's only mentioned in here. **

Chapter Nine: Interim

Coffee. She needs coffee like a fish needs water.

One of the few drawbacks that Lisbon can easily indentify about being pregnant is the inability to consume caffeine. She would drink decaf, but really, who drinks that crap? Drinking decaf coffee is pointless when what you are craving is indeed the caffeine. The second drawback has to be the fact that she can hardly ever sleep a good solid eight hours without getting up during the wee hours of the morning to relieve herself or to change her sleeping position to accommodate the baby more comfortably. She guesses that this is normal when one is eight months pregnant…especially with Patrick Jane's baby.

Resting her fingertips against her forehead and lightly massaging, Lisbon sighs and slips her eyes shut. Over the past four days she and the team have been pouring over every slight detail about Jane's trial and if they can even possibly get him out of prison. Preferably before the baby is born. She has a good feeling about this, but she also knows that this reopening will be an emotional rollercoaster and extreme stress. The latter is unwelcomed and deeply annoys her doctor. Lisbon personally thinks the notion of her son not having his father present is far more important at the moment. Whenever she gets home, she is sure to drink that pomegranate juice, her latest craving, to calm her nerves and move into her bathroom to take a long bath. It lowers her blood pressure and takes out a large portion of stress from the equation.

"Boss," at the sound of the young rookie agent's voice, Lisbon removes her fingers from her forehead and continues to rest her elbow on the table. She looks over at her door frame as Grace moves into her office with a tan folder in her hands, "I think we may be almost done gathering the evidence."

Lisbon feels for Grace, Cho, Rigsby, and Stark. The four of them have all been working rigourously at trying to get Jane from jail before she is to give birth. In just a few days, they have made a couple of all-nighters and have pretty much lived at the CBI. Whenever she offers to stay along with them, they always decline and send her home immediately. She is greatful to have them, and she does not know what her life would be like without her team.

She smiles at the redhead, "Thank you, Grace," and takes the file from the rookie with an extended hand.

As the young agent turned to head back out the door, Lisbon spoke up. She knows that Grace – and everyone else – deserve this more than anything right now. "Grace…I think you should go home. The guys and Stark too."

Grace turns around and places her hand on the door frame, "Uh, boss, you don't have to-."

Lisbon shakes her head, "This isn't a suggestion, Van Pelt, it's an order. You all have been working so hard lately and I really appreciate it," her voice chokes up in her throat as an overflow of gratitude and the feeling to cry washes over her. Damn these pregnancy hormones.

"Boss…"

Grace takes a couple of steps towards Lisbon, but the dark haired woman holds up her hand, "Go home. Now," she forces a smile in hopes of staunching the tears from flowing freely down her cheeks. Lisbon could feel them on the edges of her eyelids.

The rookie nods, "Yes boss," bowing slightly, she turns back towards the bullpen to hopefully tell everyone out there to stop whatever they were doing and for them to return to their homes and cozy beds.

Tomorrow she would go talk to Jane and review what they had been working on. Hopefully Jane will be out of prison within the next couple of weeks.

Sighing to herself, she sets the folder down on her desk and opens it up. She picks up the first sheet and turns it over – it really is of little importance. The folder itself is very fat, and that is because it gives a very detailed report on Jane's background and his relationship with Red John. It also contains a large number of high-resolution photos on glossy printer paper with crime scene photos of his family's murder and where they found Red John. Also, there is a single shot of the blood on Jane's hand and another of the blood she had on her shirt and neck.

She shifts in her seat and instantly remembers the crime scene detectives taking those pictures. They had seen the albeit light blood stains on her body and quickly questioned her and took pictures. She told them a lie as to how the blood got on her body knowing that it would not bode well for either her or Jane if she mentioned that they had sex in the back of that Chevy Traverse.

Flipping over to the next paper in the file, she sees a report in full detail. Looking up at the date, she smiles seeing that it is very much recent. The report states all about the time discrepancy and that it gave Jane time to be there, coat himself with the deceased Red John's blood, and say it was he who had done it. It also states in bold letters that Jane is notably egotistical and would no doubt want to take the blame for killing a man he had been trying to kill for several years even if he hadn't done it. Then in a single line, the report requests that it be noted that Jane had not been thinking clearly at the crime scene and during his trial.

Lisbon smiles and leans back into her chair. No doubt this was the work of predominantly Cho and Stark. Rigsby and Grace had probably stood around and maybe offered a couple of points or details to help typing this report along, but there was only one person this thorough on her team – Cho – and no doubt he asked for Stark's help.

She places her hand on her eight month pregnant belly and lightly strokes it. Baby Jane kicks her in response.

* * *

Lisbon sits in her usual mounted-to-the-floor chair with her hands resting on top of a metal table. Her foot is tapping a mind-numbing rhythm on the floor beneath her as she waits impatiently for Jane to arrive. Today there are not as many people trying to visit their loved ones, and she is kind of all right with this. Once in the visiting room, she enjoys hearing the chatter of everyone around her. It drowns out her conversation with Jane to the outside world and makes her feel like it is just them and removes the worry that someone could be eavesdropping. Hence why there 'usual spot' is also more towards the corner.

She instantly perks up when the loved ones enter the room, and she can easily pick out Jane from the crowd. In the past few months he has rarely gotten a hair cut, and his wild blond curls have become an easy way for her to identify him over a large throng of people. Luckily he has been shaving.

He smiles when he sits down across from her, "Teresa, where have you been? I've missed you and Junior."

She shifts slightly and tries to lean forward, but is blocked by her belly, "I've been trying to get your ass out of jail," she smiles and his barely falters, "We did find Red John's letter. Stark, your lawyer, should come by tomorrow and discuss with you about the case. Hopefully you'll be out of jail before he's born," she gestures downwards towards her swollen belly.

He becomes serious in a matter of seconds, "How long until I need to be in court?"

She shakes her head, "I really don't know. That's why Stark has to come by. She's dealing with a couple of things about this case today. Hopefully in the next week or two."

He nods, "She's a good lawyer, Lisbon, Hightower should have made her our ally a long time ago," he smiles, "She sure does keep the boys on their toes."

"Hush. Like I said, hopefully you'll be in court in the next week or two and out before he's born."

His smile vanishes completely, "I really missed you. I miss seeing you everyday," he wants nothing more to reach across the table and stroke his hand down the side of her cheek and kiss her senseless. He wants nothing more to leave this prison and make love to her over and over again until they can take no more.

Lisbon stiffens slightly and feels some anger rise up inside her, but pushes it back down. "I miss you too." Because she said that, she now feels tears bubble up on the corners of her eyes. For the umpteenth time this week, she damns her pregnancy hormones.

The sudden thought that Jane has indeed been missing out on a large portion of her pregnancy thus far sends the tears flowing freely from her eyes. She feels everyone in the room turn to look at her and she suddenly feels naked. With only one thought she has been reduced to a sobbing and wallowing mess in a public area.

Jane looks around the room and gestures with his cuffed hands towards her abdomen, "Uh, she's pregnant," several people nod, "Hormones."

Her tears have been forgotten and she is now boiling in her seat. Slight rage bubbles up and she feels the need to either do bodily harm or shoot this infuriating man. Hell, she now feels like hitting him over the head with the chair that she is currently situated on. Multiple times. She has come to the conclusion that he deserves it after all these months of putting her through hell.

Oh, the very thought of hitting him multiple times is the most appealing.

**Well, the next chapter is already named (go me!) and hopefully will be out soon. After Friday I have very little excuses as to why stories aren't being updated. I'm trying to update "Once Lost, Now Found" next because I've been trying to get that one done for over a month...but can't find my muse :(**

**Oh and I hate pomegranates...it's Lisbon's latest craving. **


	10. Come On, Give it a Try

**Well...I'm officially a high school graduate and set to attend college in the fall. I'm trying to finish up this story (which shouldn't be a problem, I think) and 'The Immortals' and 'Once Lost, Now Found.' 'The Immortals' is next on my updates list, I promise. This one was just begging to be written - and I'm also kind of glad that I got this chapter out of the way so things can un-angst-tify. Yes, I created that word just now. **

**I would like to thank everyone who read, reviewed, subscribed, and favourited. You guys are amazing :)**

**BrightLights: I really love writing Lisbon in general - especially hormonal pregnant Lisbon! Don't worry, I intend to keep on writing Once Lost, Now Found, and thank you for reading and taking the time to review :)**

**Disclaimer: I'm sure Bruno Heller doesn't get lost in a city he's lived in for a few years...even with a GPS. That gives him the amazing rights to this show. **

Chapter Ten: Come on, Give it a Try

Jane shifts uncomfortably in his suit. He happily welcomed the change of clothes other than a blue jumpsuit that Cho had brought him, but because he isn't used to dressing like this anymore...he feels awkward. Though he is happy about the re-trial starting today and hopefully also ending soon, he just wishes he could get into more comfortable clothes as fast as possible.

Sighing, Jane reaches up and rubs his freshly shaved cheek. When Cho had come and brought him the clean suit, he also brought a razor and shaving cream. Scissors too. On account of having very limited hair cuts in the last few months, Jane's hair had become extremely long and his curls had run wild. With one look, Cho quickly moved to one of the offices and requested a pair of scissors and snipped away, much to Jane's protest. Smiling at the humourous memory, Jane leans back into his seat at the defense table.

Trying to pass the time, he starts to bounce his leg up and down in one place and whistles. His lawyer, Kaitlin Stark, sits beside him and casts an irate look in his direction. Jane pauses and cocks his head in her direction. The corners of his mouth begin to form a smile at the young lawyer and he turns back to face the front of the courtroom and continues to whistle.

"Please stop it."

He stops and looks at the woman, "Why so grumpy? Are you angry because you had to miss out on a lovely morning with your boyfriend?"

Stark shifts in her seat and refuses to turn to him. So he continues in a low voice, "Do you think I should stay in jail after I killed a man? A man that killed my wife and child eight years ago and meant to kill Agent Lisbon, and who haunted the state of California for years?"

She breathes in and out quietly and slowly turns to Jane. Stark blinks at him, "I'm 'grumpy' because you left Agent Lisbon all alone."

"To protect her."

"But you acted as a vigilante, and you shouldn't have done that," she turns back to face forward.

Jane studies the young lawyer for a moment. She isn't angry about his actions – she very well agrees that Red John should have been taken down, and that the method didn't really matter. It was deeper – more personal – as to why she was acting so grumpy with him.

He shakes his head, "It isn't about that. You wanted him gone too." Stark turns to him, "You _are _upset about Lisbon, and believe me, I am too. But you're also upset because this case has cost you something personal."

Stark leans back into the bench seat and takes a deep breath. She looks over at Jane, and by the look of her hazel eyes he can tell that that she definitely lost someone she loved. Maybe not to death, but the feeling of abandonment is still there and it still stings. Because of that, Jane feels guilty. He feels guilty for leaving Lisbon alone for all these months – even though his actions saved her life – and because it has obviously hurt a young woman who had been in love.

"My fiancé left me a couple of days ago. He was tired of me being at the CBI for so many days and didn't like me working this case. I came home to an empty apartment," she says quickly without looking at him, "I tried to call him an hour ago to tell him something, but he wouldn't answer his stupid phone. I mean he has it all the time!" she nervously starts chewing on her thumbnail.

Jane shifts away from her, "I don't blame you, Mr. Jane." Her voice is so soft and she looks over at him, "I don't blame you for killing Red John." Her eyes flicker in his direction and for the first time he sees something he should have noticed months ago. Her hazel eyes were the exact same as someone else's he gazed into. Jane remembers them every night in his sleep and always awakens when they begin to fog over.

She is Red John's child.

* * *

"All rise," the bailiff says as he stands straight with his hands on his belt buckle.

Lisbon stands to her feet and rests her arms underneath her pregnant belly. Today is the day that she will try to get Jane out of jail as a free man. Honestly she will readily admit that she feels that it is a long shot that this will work, but she tries to remain hopeful for their son's sake.

The judge gestures with his hand, "Let's begin," and then gestures again for everyone to sit back down.

Lisbon grimaces as she slowly slides back into her seat, her hand flying to her lower back as a twinge of pain welcomes her. Rigsby turns his head in her directions and mouths her the question "are you okay?" and she nods her head. Back pains weren't uncommon in her third trimester, and she has been dealing with them for quite some time now. They were nothing new and her team knew this.

Sighing, she looks back up as the judge goes through the new evidence he has before him. All eyes are on him now as he turns another page and looks in Jane's direction – the man that he had sent to jail all those months ago. Lisbon pauses and clenches her hand into a fist by her belly as she suddenly fears that this judge may try to keep Jane in jail, regardless of the new evidence they have come up with. It was a known fact that Judge Klasen _hates_ Patrick Jane more than anything on this planet. She knows even with new evidence, the odds really aren't in Jane's favour. That is, unless the jury decides otherwise.

"Mr. Jane, you told this court that you killed Max Clemenson, also known as Red John, to avenge the death of your wife and child and to protect Agent Lisbon," Judge Klasen looks over at Lisbon over his spectacles and furrows his brow when he sees the swell of her belly, "Why the sudden change of heart?"

Jane simply shrugs his shoulders as if it were nothing, "Well, you see, I really wanted to kill him," Lisbon feels the sudden urge to strike the man, "but when I arrived at the scene of the crime he was already dead. It upset me that I never got to kill him myself, so I told everyone that I had, and everyone believed me."

The judge leans forward, "Because all evidence points to you, Mr. Jane," Lisbon really wants to hit Jane when he shrugs and mouths a "meh" as the judge continues his monologue, "Your fingerprints are on the murder weapon and you were covered in his blood!"

Jane leans back, "I wanted people to think that I had killed Red John," he then leans forward again, "Tell me Judge Klasen, if your family was killed by a madman and you vowed to them you would avenge their death, you would feel a bit peeved if you arrived on the scene to find him already dead would you not? So naturally I pretended that I killed him."

Lisbon shuts her eyes for a couple of moments and blinks. She knew Jane had to go about this case like this so it would be more convincing. Cho told him when he also brought the change of clothes this morning. Taking a deep breath and as she is about to reopen her eyes, she feels a sharp kick to the side of her belly. She jerks upwards and her hand lands over the area where she was just kicked. Baby Jane seems to agree with the story that his father has just fabricated…or because he was made in the time discrepancy that is about to be spoken about.

"Mr. Jane, you are admitting to lying in a court of law. That is another serious offense."

"With all do respect, Judge Klasen, I wasn't really in the most sane state of mind."

Judge Klasen took a long blink and Lisbon has to fight back a chuckle. After this court appearance, Judge Klasen would no doubt need a whole entire tub of aspirin because of Jane.

After a long pregnant pause, Stark stands up from her place and rounds the corner to stand closer to Judge Klasen's podium. Clasping onto a government-issued CBI folder, she stands before the court. Flipping it open, she turns a couple of pages and settles on one, "Your honour, I would like to enter this statement in the chain of custody."

She takes a couple of steps forward and hands the papers to the judge. He looks them over and his eyebrows rise almost immediately. He leans back into his seat and looks down at the young lawyer then back at Patrick Jane. He rubs his chin and then reaches up to push his glasses back up his nose. "This is a medical examiner's report."

Stark nods, "Yes. Red John was killed two hours earlier than what was previously claimed in the last trial. For some reason, instead of going by the medical examiner's report earlier, we went by Mr. Jane's testimony of just killing Red John as soon as Agent Lisbon had found him. We have witnesses that state that she was right behind him and arrived on the scene right after Red John was killed and that she immediately called it in." Stark takes a deep breath and continues.

"This is not possible due to the two hour discrepancy. Red John had already been dead for two hours by the time Agent Lisbon called it in."

Judge Klasen leans forward and looks over at Lisbon, "Is this true, agent?"

She nods and caresses the swell of her belly under the table, "Yes, I arrived just after Jane came and I did believe him to have killed Red John originally."

Klasen looks at her more closely, "But you two left in enough time to arrive to the scene of the crime that two hours before. There are witnesses around the CBI that can easily testify to that."

Lisbon nods and fights the urge to bite her lip, "Yes, but the weather conditions were questionable," it was not a lie. She clearly remembers the rain beating down on the roof of her Chevy Traverse as they made love, "The tread marks in the mud caused by Jane's vehicle were still fresh when I arrived shortly after he did. When I arrived on the scene, Jane was standing over Max Clemenson's body with my gun in hand, but the blood around them had been dry for quite some time. It wasn't fresh, your honour."

Judge Klasen looked around the entire courtroom to search everyone's faces for any sign of lies. "So, who killed Max Clemenson?"

Lisbon shakes her head, "We do not know, your honour, but we also have Clemenson's prints on the gun as well. He could have easily committed suicide just to screw with Jane some more knowing that Jane would take the blame. Especially with the letter, also in that file," she points to the folder that Stark had given to the judge.

The Judge nods and flips through some papers and picks up the letter encased in a giant freezer baggie. He quickly looks over it and Lisbon can see him shiver. She leans back in her seat, "We have reasons to believe that Red John sent that letter to Jane knowing that he would come."

Judge Klasen looks back up at the court and swallows, "All right," his voice isn't quite being carried by the microphone situated in front of him, "We will recess for fifteen minutes."

Lisbon looks over at the other side of the court and sees Jane smile at her. He is hopeful, and so is she. Carefully she stands and places her hand on the side of her belly as she feels another strong kick. Jane winks at her and without much fuss is lead out of the courtroom. She looks down at her belly and rubs it affectionately and then turns back to look at the now vacant podium. Taking a deep breath, she leaves the courtroom.

* * *

Jane watches Stark hastily pull her hair into a clumsy bun. This is really the first time he has looked at her since his discovery of her parentage, and he is curious as to why she is helping him avoid his prison sentence. Or rather…get out of it.

"He's your father."

Stark pauses and lets her hands fall from her hair. She cautiously turns and looks at Jane and places her hands on her hips, "Yes, Red John was my father."

He takes a step closer, feeling awkward once more now that his hands are cuffed, "And yet you're helping me."

She shifts her footing and crosses her arms over her chest, "I didn't know what Red John was to me up until two years ago. He hurt my mother years ago and was a bad man. I have to sour feelings with you," she whispers to him and leans against a nearby wall.

Jane cocks his head to the side, his infamous curiosity getting the better of him, "How did he hurt your mother?"

She shrugs her shoulders, "He didn't kill her, if that is what you are wondering. My mother is blind at the moment, but when she met him she was just becoming so. He acted as if he loved her and they were together for five years before he just left." There was a sense of bitterness in her tone, "It broke her heart, and the only reason why he probably stayed with her was because she was going blind, and she couldn't see him for who he was."

Jane nods suddenly remembering the other blind woman that Red John had courted a few years ago. He seemed to seek human affections in the blind due to the fact that they could not see him and were not really reliable when it came to lining up suspects for all to see. Jane knows that he really should not be surprised that this happened this way.

"And I hated him for it," Stark finishes and Jane can tell that she will not say anymore about it.

He nods softly, "Thank you for telling me, Kaitlin," she nods at him and looks the other way. He smiles at her and starts to walk away, but first he waves softly at the guard who watches over him like a hawk. The guard nods in understanding that Jane intends to move to the other side towards the heavily pregnant woman sitting on a chair outside the courtroom doors.

Jane instantly smiles and walks towards her, being careful not to alert his presence near her. He stops in front of her and he feels her pause knowing that someone is standing near to her in her own personal bubble. She looks up and her eyes light up at the sight of him, and is about to stand up when he shakes his head to tell her no.

"Hey," her smile grows.

"Hey," he says to her and leans down to be at a closer level to her, "How are you and junior?" he reaches his hands down and caresses the swell of her belly, feeling the baby kick back.

She leans back, "He has been so active during this whole trial," she places her hands over his and squeezes them, "It's very distracting."

"Really?" he smirks, proud that his offspring is distracting her.

Lisbon rolls her eyes and nods, "God yes. Your son has been active for the past couple of weeks now."

Jane pats her belly, "Well, he's just getting a little crammed in there. He wants out soon, you know."

She groans softly, "His mother wants him out soon."

Jane smiles and his eyes move to her lips, "In time, my dear," and he leans forward to press a quick kiss onto her lips.

When his lips touch hers, she is surprised. They have not been able to show that much open signs of affection while he has taken up residence in prison over the last few months. The fact that he just kissed her now, during his trial's recess, brought her back to the dilemma they would face if for some reason he is not pardoned.

They stay silent for a few minutes until they are being summoned back into the courtroom. As Jane turns and heads back to his friendly guard, Lisbon stands slowly, but firmly and grabs onto his arm. He turns and barely catches her as she moves close to him and presses her lips to his in a passionate kiss that says so much. It ignites something in him and he feels the urge to wrap his arms around her, but cannot due to the handcuffs trapping him. Instead he has to settle to reach up and gently caress the side of her cheek with the back of his hand. She presses one last kiss to his lips and steps back only slightly.

"I love you."

* * *

He settles back into his seat and is ready for the ultimatum. He knows that Judge Klasen had pondered everything that has been presented to him today during those fifteen minutes, and is no doubt still weighing the pros and cons of absolving Patrick Jane from his crime that he supposedly did not commit. At this moment, he also finds it appropriate to once again bounce his foot up and down against the floor, and this time Stark does nothing to stop him as she too engages herself in a nervous habit of biting her thumbnail.

Judge Klasen reaches up and takes hold of his gavel and runs his clubby fingers across the fine wood. He takes in a deep breath and the sweat beads up on his brow, "We have come to the verdict that," he pauses and once more looks around at the court, "That you, Patrick Alexander Jane, shall be pardoned and released from prison." He brings the gravel down and onto the base and the sound reverberates throughout the room.

Jane instantly looks across the room at Lisbon, whose look of sheer elation is no doubt a mirror image of his own. Grateful that he no longer had his handcuffs binding his wrists together, he gets up from his seat and runs to the other side of the courtroom, and no one stops him. Lisbon is standing by the time he reaches her and takes her into his arms. Pulling her closer to him so that her pregnant belly rests against his abdomen, he presses a loving kiss onto her lips. Her eyes flutter shut and she wraps her arms around his neck. He turns his head to the side, feeling his nose caress hers as he moves, and presses a firmer kiss to her lips.

People clap seeing the once broken man repair his heart, and Jane cannot help but move away from Lisbon for a few brief moments. When he looks at her once more, her eyes are open and he sees that she is crying and has a blush forming on her cheeks. Once more, she would no doubt blame this action on her sporadic hormones. He laughs in complete joy and pulls her to him again. He definitely knows that everyone that has a government job will know of this…and so will the media.

"Case…dismissed," and the gravel was brought done for the last time.

**I put a twist in there, but it won't be explored. This story maybe has a chapter or two left now. I may do a little one shot series/collection type thing that moves in chronological order for awhile, so let's see how that goes. Oh, and I have a little one shot in the works called "The Pros and Cons of Men as Told by Teresa Lisbon" thanks to a conversation on Twitter with Jisbon4Ever. It's supposed to be humour, I'm sure that's gathered by the title. ;)**


	11. Such a Beautiful Night

**I know, I said I'd update 'The Immortals' before I updated this one again, but I couldn't help it. I'm almost through with this one and...yeah. Also, I'm sure some of you don't mind? ;) And 'The Immortals' is almost done (chapter-wise, the story is really just starting!) and should be out in the next day or two. If not, feel free to bother me.**

**I would also like to say that I've never given birth nor have I ever been pregnant...so this chapter was incredibly difficult for me to write. Put it this way...it took about six hours. Also: This is the longest chapter I think I may have ever written in the history of my life. It's 5,000+ words. **

**Ananas: I'm well aware that Jane has his own gun, but in a way I see him doing something more rash and not take the time to go up in the attic to retrieve it. That's kind of what I wanted to show with this. Thank you for reading and reviewing :)**

**Disclaimer: No, I do not own The Mentalist. **

Chapter Eleven: Such a Beautiful Night

Lisbon leans back into the bathtub and clutches onto the sides. Sighing, she sinks in further and brings her hands up to caress her swollen belly. Within her, the baby shifts and kicks her hands, and she cannot fight back a smile. She slips her eyes shut and hums. She feels so calm and at peace, and she welcomes the feeling whole-heartedly. For the past two weeks, she feels safe and at peace for first time during her pregnancy. Now that Jane is out of jail, she is for the most part worry-free. Her only worries are about her unborn child, and are only minimal in contrast to what they were these past nine months.

"Teresa?" she cracks open one eye at the sound of her lover's voice, "You've been in there for over an hour, are you all right?" He sounds concerned. Ever since he came into her home, he has been following her around to insure her comfort and safety. She loves it…and at the same time she hates it. She is not used to being given this much attention, but she knows that she will eventually get used to it.

She straightens up, "I'm fine, Patrick."

He is silent for only a few moments, which she finds quite humourous, before he speaks again, "May I come in?"

It shocks her that he is asking for permission to enter the bathroom. Normally he does not ask for permission for these types of things; usually he just picks the lock on the door and waltzes right in with a big smile on his face.

"Yes," she calls back and looks down at her belly.

He pushes open the door, his hand still hovering over the brass knob. Jane peaks in, his eyes immediately landing on her and his worried gaze softens. His fingers move away from the knob and he steps into the room and moves up towards her. Stopping before her, he kneels down on the floor and peaks over at her, a small smile appearing on his features.

"What?"

"I missed you."

Slight annoyance builds up, but she pushes it back down. Taking a deep breath, she looks over at him, "Patrick, I've only been up here for a little over an hour."

He nods his head back and forth, "No, you've been up here for an hour and forty-three minutes. That's way over 'a little'" he tsks, trying to sound serious, but failing miserably.

Rolling her eyes, she reaches over and slaps one of his hands promptly. He pulls it back and mocks hurt, but moves back closer to her. "I just worry about you, that's all," and he picks himself up and presses a soft kiss to her forehead. "You should come out soon, or else you'll start to look like a prune."

She slaps him again and he lets out a chuckle. The man had a way with words and had the inability to keep his mouth shut, but then again he would not be Patrick Jane without that rather annoying attribute. She also has to admit that that is one of the many reasons as to why she is in love with him.

As he is leaving the room, she feels another contraction move around her abdomen. This isn't the first one she has had today – or rather this week – hence why she is currently in the bathtub currently soaking. For some reason, lying in warm water made them feel less uncomfortable and more ignorable. But this one was different somehow. It was a little more intense than the others.

"Patrick?" she calls after him, and watches him promptly stop his feet. "I think he's coming."

He turns to her and moves back towards her at an incredible rate. Just as he bends over to look down at her, she scrunches up her face as another contraction, even more intense than the last one, hits her. He places one hand on her upper arm and looks into her eyes. Only four days ago they were at the hospital for her to give birth, and it turned out to be a false labour. They were both disappointed, but this time…she has a feeling that the moment they had been waiting for has finally arrived.

"You sure?"

She nods and places a hand just over her belly button, "Yes," she breathes, "I think he's coming now."

His gaze falls onto her belly and he barely moves his head, "Uh, yes, let's get you out of there," he begins to help her stand to her feet in the bathtub before he turns around to grab a towel that is hung up on a nearby knob. Turning back to her, he wraps the fuzzy blue towel around her body and holds it to her snugly, "Now, easy," he takes her hand and helps her out, one hand resting on her lower back as her feet land onto the matching blue rug sprawled over the cold tile floor of the bathroom.

She nods at him and begins moving into the bathroom, "I better put some clothes on," and he nods as well, walking after her and mumbling something about packing the bags and calling everyone.

Lisbon closes her eyes and tells herself to breathe. Tonight she is having their baby. The very concept of that is both a wondrous feeling and also…a little frightening. She really has not viewed herself as mom-material since she was really young, and now that the time has really come for the baby to come…she feels like she has the weight of the world on her shoulders. So, to calm her nerves, she takes a deep breath and moves over towards her drawers and once more begins to mentally prepare herself for her impending motherhood.

* * *

While Lisbon has been busy changing into a hospital gown, Jane busied himself with calling several people on his cell phone: Hightower, Cho, Rigsby, Van Pelt, Stark, and Minelli. He figures that all of the people of the CBI would like to know that the little baby Jane that everyone has been anticipating is about to arrive. Everyone sounded happy and excited, and they all planned to stop by either in the next few minutes to hours to give Lisbon some good old moral support.

"Patrick?" at the sound of her voice, Jane turns and heads back into the room they had been assigned forty-five minutes ago. Upon entering, he sees Lisbon sitting on the bed, the slightly oversized gown around her body.

He moves over to her and wraps his arms around her and presses a kiss to her forehead, "How many minutes apart are they now?"

"They are less than five minutes apart now," she places her hands on her belly and stares at really nothing in particular. Jane can tell that she is thinking about different matters, and is slightly conflicted at the moment.

He looks into her eyes, "What is on your mind?" she looks down at the sheets and takes in a deep breath, "Teresa?"

Her eyes flicker up to meet his and she gives him a sheepish smile, "I'm sorry, that was just another contraction. What did you ask me?"

"What's on your mind?" he asks her again as he moves to sit beside her on the bed. "You seem very preoccupied."

She just looks over at him again, "I'm just a little worried that's all. I mean, what if something goes wrong?"

Jane shrugs his shoulders, "Teresa, you're going to be fine. Through this labour and through parenting in general. You must not worry about screwing up," he takes her hand in his and rubs his thumb over the back of it, "Dr. Sanders will be back in here soon to do another exam and hook you up to some machines," he leans forward and presses a soft kiss to her cheek.

She wrinkles up her face and smiles slightly, "That just sounds weird."

He chuckles and is about to say something, but the door opens and the doctor steps in with a cart. She smiles at the two of them and subtly gestures for Jane to get off of the bed, which he does as instructed without asking any questions. The doctor gestures for Lisbon to lie back and begins to pull a couple of objects off of the cart – one is a device that will monitor the baby's heartbeat and her contractions. Lisbon gets under the blankets and lifts up her gown and lets the doctor wrap the device around her belly and start it up.

Jane feels relief when Dr. Sanders announces that everything is normal and progressing at a fine rate. She performs a vaginal exam on Lisbon and concludes that she is dilated four centimeteres. The doctor leaves momentarily after announcing how far Lisbon is dilated to give the two of them some time alone, and Jane can not help but already feel proud of Lisbon for all that she has been through during this pregnancy.

He pulls up a chair and sits beside her bed. Jane picks up her hand and presses a soft kiss and then bends back down to shift through the bag he had placed by the bed only before Lisbon began to change into the hospital gown. He pulls out a _People_ magazine and holds it out to her, which she gladly takes.

"You're my saviour," she says and begins to open it when her eyes slip shut and her mouth draws into a thin line. Taking a deep breath and trying to shift into a more comfortable position, she turns a page in the magazine and just says "Another one," before she goes silent.

Jane smiles and looks down at her abdomen. Very soon their little baby would join them in this world, and he could not wait for that moment. He is also quite sure that Lisbon cannot wait either, as she is probably more than ready to end her labour as it is now and hold their new baby boy in her arms. To be honest, Jane really wants to see their son as well. The feeling is more than mutual.

* * *

By the time the later afternoon hit, Lisbon starts to feel restless and more uncomfortable than she did when she had first arrived. Her contractions now occur at a more frequent time, and every time one hits, she always shuts her eyes and takes in a deep breath. She knows that the man beside her is counting each and every one, and makes sure to tell her how far apart they are from the last.

Ten minutes ago she was relieved when Dr. Sanders announced that she is about seven centimetres dilated. To her it meant that she is nearing the end of her labour, but also that her water should break anytime soon.

Another contraction hits and she sits more upright and grits her teeth. Her hand clutches onto the plastic railing tighter as she rides out the waves of pain. Jane looks over at her with concern, but knows that he can not do anything to help her. The last time he tried to soothe her with kind words…she chased him away with a lot of not-so-nice words. She kind of wants to offer him a smile to let him know that she is all right, but she can't get the muscles in her face to move the way she likes and display an emotion other than pain.

She shifts a little when the contraction subsides and turns her head to look at him. She reaches out a hand and pokes him in the upper arm to get his attention, and he promptly moves over closer to her. Lisbon leans back into the pillows and eases into them. Pulling her hand back over to her, she reaches up and brushes away her sweaty fringe from her forehead.

"We haven't really discussed baby names," he looks at her and nods, "Well, we have, but I really don't want to tell our son that we discussed his name while you were in prison."

He nods again and pulls the chair closer to her, "We agreed on the middle name, Samuel, for him a long time ago. Is this still right?" she can tell he does not want to anger her, and this warms her heart a little.

She smiles at him, "Yeah, that's still right" She had told him a few months back that she wanted his middle name to be after Sam Bosco, a former CBI agent who lost his life before Red John met his demise. Lisbon felt that Bosco had been a courageous man, and that her son should be partially named after him.

Jane draws his lips into a thin line as he ponders and another contraction hits her. Again, she feels her grip tighten on the plastic railing of the hospital bed and he just flickers his eyes towards her with concern. She has only blamed him once so far for causing her to be in labour, so she knew he is taking that as a good sign.

"How about Leonard?" he asks her and she immediately scrunches up her face.

She shakes her head in disgust, "No, I don't think that will suit him." she hopes that he will agree and know that a mother always knows best. Especially when it comes to naming her babies, and she just knows that Leonard will not fit her little baby boy at all. Honestly there is nothing wrong with the name itself, it just…won't fit him.

"Okay, how about Edward?" Jane asks with trepidation.

Lisbon shakes her head again, "No, I really don't want people thinking he was named after some sparkly vampire out of a teen novel," she says, "Even though I like it a little."

Jane smiles, "Caleb?" once again, Lisbon shakes her head and disagrees, "Okay, since you have been disagreeing with me so far, do you have any better ideas?"

She shrugs her shoulders, "I've always liked Adrian…or Benjamin."

He nods at her suggestions, "They are both excellent names. Benjamin not really so much," she turns her head and glares at him, "It's a great name, really, but I don't feel like it'll suit him," he gestures to her belly and gives her a small smile, "and to be honest, I'm not sure Adrian would fit him either."

Lisbon turns around and plops herself back down against the pillows. She feels the stress build up and another contraction looming. She is also starting to feel like she is being a crappy parent already just because she and Jane have not yet decided on a name for their soon-to-be born son. Maybe this is why she has not yet had a child…because she has always known that she'd be a bad mother.

Jane seems to sense her thoughts of worry, and reaches over to place his hand over hers, "Teresa?" she looks over at him just as she feels a tear run down the side of her cheek. Instantly she questions how long that tear has even been forming in the corner of her eye before he speaks again, "You are having doubts."

She does not even waste time and lie to him this time, so she nods in confirmation. "Yes," she says softly.

"Why?"

Her breath catches in her throat and she feels the sudden need to hide from him – damn these hormones – and she reaches up to rub her temples, "We haven't even decided on a name for him yet, we're not married like my parents were, I just lied to a federal court, and he is going to be born too soon!" she says all in one breath, "Everything just isn't going right?"

Jane looks at her and quirks up an eyebrow, "Lisbon," he uses her surname to get her attention, "You're thirty-eight weeks pregnant, that's not too soon," she nods, but feels like it still is, "A lot of couples are not married when their child is born and just because we haven't yet settled on name doesn't make us doomed parents."

She sniffles and he cups her cheeks in his hand, "and I love you and you love me. That is why I am still here with you and why you lied to get me out of prison. You had a good reason to do it all just like I had a good reason to save your life. Everything happens for a reason Teresa, and I promise you that everything will turn out all right."

Lisbon nods, but stiffens again and clutches at her belly. She leans back into the pillows and fights back a groan as the pain increases she suddenly feels a gush of liquid seep out of her body. Quickly, her eyes shoot open and she turns to look at him.

"My water just broke."

He just looks at her, so she repeats it and his eyes widen. He nods and stands to his feet, and begins telling her that everything is going to be all right. She just nods at him and tries to tell him to move out of the door and go find Dr. Sanders when another contraction hits her body almost immediately. She throws her head back and groans as the pressure in her lower abdomen increases.

"Jane! Go find the damn doctor you jackass!"

He nods and holds up a hand, "Okay!" and quickly moves out of the room like his ass was on fire.

* * *

She runs her hands across Jane's and she leans further into his body. When she hit eight centimetres, he climbed into the bed behind her and held onto her aching body. His hands were carefully placed over her belly and he is nuzzling the side of her neck with his lips. At first she was convinced herself that she would have kicked him out of the bed immediately when he started doing that, but promptly stopped herself when she realized that it only calmed her and made the contractions feel a little less potent. Jane is also being used as a tool to help remind her to not try to push the baby out. Twenty minutes ago she tried that, but the doctor quickly informed her to stop and told her what she could do to her body if she began pushing too soon. Processing this new information made her rather grumpy and feel the need to push just to defy the doctor's orders.

As of late, her contractions have grown even more intense and painful than they were a couple of hours ago. She continuously feels the painful pressure of their son trying to push his way out and through her body.

"Patrick?" she says his name in a weak voice.

"Yes," she feels him pull away from her neck and wrap his arms tighter around her.

"I really want to push now."

She can tell he is about to say something, but she silences him when she shoots up and grabs onto his forearms and lets out a pitiful whimper as another harsh contraction moves through her body. She squeezes her eyes shut and grits her teeth as the pain intensifies to a level ten out of ten. Her nails dig into his arms, and she is about to mutter a sorry when the urge to push soon becomes too much.

"Call the doctor, now. I want her to check me again because he really wants to come out now."

Jane leans forward and presses a kiss to her cheek, "Sure," and he starts to detangle himself from her and get up from the bed.

Instantly she feels the discomfort of him being gone return and she whimpers again. He turns around and tells her he'll be back soon, and soon he leaves the room. She almost decides to call for a member of her team, but decides not to as she does not wish for them to see her all sweaty and yelling profanities every now and again. The words she is saying to Jane will make even Cho look away in discomfort.

Jane comes back into the room about two minutes later with Dr. Sanders behind him. He instantly goes back to her and she grabs hold of his hand and locks it into hers in a death grip. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees him grit his teeth, but she brushes it off and only wishes that he could share more of her pain along with her.

Dr. Sanders checks her again and concludes that she is fully dilated and ready to begin pushing. Lisbon feels like crying in relief knowing that this will be over soon. She looks over at Jane, and smiles when he squeezes her hand.

"We're ready," he tells her and leans over to press a kiss to her sweaty forehead.

She nods and feels another contraction begin to build up and Dr. Sanders instructs her to begin pushing along with it. She sits up a little and uses her abdominal muscles to begin pushing the baby out of her body, but sinks back down when the contraction subsides. Quickly after another contraction hits her and she pulls herself up to push again and it leaves her feeling disorientated. Shutting her eyes momentarily, she feels Jane squeeze her hand and she opens her eyes to look over at him. She is about to open her mouth to say something to him when another contraction hits her and she pushes as if on instinct. This one is far more intense than the last two and she lets out a slight scream when she falls back against the pillows.

Dr. Sanders pats the side of her leg and tells her that she is doing well. At this moment she just feels like shooting her doctor, but refrains from announcing this. When she begins to feel another contraction building up, the last thing she wants to do is push this time around. She feels tired and all she really wants to do is curl up into a ball and fall asleep.

"You need to push now, Teresa," she hears her doctor tell her, but she can barely keep her eyes open.

"Teresa!" she hears Jane's voice and instantly she opens her eyes again.

When the contraction intensifies, she squeezes her eyes shut and pushes hard, and feels the lower part of her body start to burn. She falls back against the now flatter pillows once it subsides and continues to breathe hard. She just looks up at Jane and he back at her. He reaches forward and brushes her fringe from her face and lets her know that she is doing great.

"Teresa, I can see the baby's head now. Do you want to see it?"

Lisbon simply nods her head in Dr. Sander's direction. She hears some shuffling and the doctor tells her that she can look down, and she instantly sees a mirrored reflection of her son's head pushing out of her body. It's really just a mass of dark hair. A lot of it.

Now that she saw his head, she now feels even closer to his delivery and becomes more determined. Every time a contraction comes, she pushes through the pain and listens to the peppy cheers around her. In a time like this, they're actually helpful to her, and she welcomes them. Especially when they announced that her son's shoulders were out.

"Come on Teresa, just one more push and he's out!" Dr. Sander's tells her excitedly.

With one more push, she feels her lower body stretch to accommodate the baby's departure and she feels like wiggling when an intense burning sensation hits her. Her head falls back and her hand clasps tighter around Jane's as she yells one last time before she feels her son leave her body completely.

She instantly falls back against the pillows one more time and looks over just in time to see Dr. Sanders lift up her son. The baby looks wet and is wiggling continuously in the doctor's arms, and an overwhelming feeling of love floods into her being. All thoughts on being scared about motherhood diminish and all she wants to do is hold her newly born son. Dr. Sanders places the little boy on Lisbon's chest and looks over at Jane and motions for him to come closer.

"Mr. Jane, do you want to cut the umbilical cord?"

Jane's eyes light up and he nods. The doctor places a clamp on the cord and hands Jane the tools needed to cut the cord, and he does it. Lisbon watches him and smiles, but then turns her attention back to her newly born son and brushes the back of her fingers down the side of his soft cheek.

She leans back into the pillows and smiles up at Jane. Their son is here, and now at this moment in time, they had no worries in the world.

* * *

Three hours after their son's delivery, Lisbon still feels extremely sore and tired. Just fifteen minutes or so ago she woke up to find her room filled with balloons, flowers, and a couple of stuffed animals. Jane came up beside her and told her that the team had come by and dropped the items by and said congratulations, but had to leave and resume their nightly activities. Now she is just grateful to have a little alone time with Jane and their son.

Leaning back against her freshly replenished pillows, she studies her son as he feeds from her breast. He has a full head of dark hair and long eyelashes. In her honest opinion, he is the most adorable little baby she has seen in a long time. The baby shifts and she almost moans in discomfort. A nurse informed her earlier that nursing the first couple of times will be uncomfortable, but she did not know the extent of it. Right now the pain is not so bad, but if she moves or the baby moves, the pain comes back only a little, but not as intense as before.

"I think we should decide on a name right now," she spoke softly, looking up at Jane, "Any ideas?"

Jane shifts in the stiff chair and looks at their son. He reaches up and scratches his chin obviously in deep thought. Naming a child was no simple task, and they did not want their son to have an embarrassing name to have to live with.

"He looks like a David," Jane finally says and stands up to his feet. Looking over at his son's face that is still pressed into her breast, he nods again, "Yes, he's definitely a David."

Lisbon furrows her brow and looks back down at the baby in her arms. David Samuel. Overall a fine name and Jane is right…it suits the tiny baby in her arms. She smiles and looks over at her significant lover and nods, "David it is."

Jane smiles brightly and walks over to her. He leans down and presses a loving kiss to her lips and then another on top of David's head. He reaches down and rubs the side of the baby's head and his smile grows even more. Lisbon reaches up and brushes the side of his cheek with the back of her hand, and Jane can no longer resist leaning down again to press a more passionate kiss to her lips that leaves her toes tingling.

"I love you," he breathes, and kisses her again.

"I love you more."

He shakes his head against her lips, "That is false. I love you more."

She just kisses him again. She breaks the kiss and looks back down at the newly born baby boy in her arms. His name is now David Samuel Jane, and he has both of his parents present in his life.

**Only one more chapter left after this, and in a way I'm a little sad about that. I'm going to miss writing this :(**


	12. Romance Your Ego For Awhile

**I am beyond sad to see this story end. I actually got pretty emotional - and have also been putting this off - while writing this chapter. First off, I would like to thank everyone for reading, reviewing, subscribing, and favouriting this story. You guys rock! :) Second-off, I will like to reiterate the fact, or just plain state in case I didn't before, that the majority of the chapter titles were part of the song "Illuminated" by Hurts. Personally...I fell in love with this song back in January and it helped me write this. **

**AmyEC: Overprotective Jane is awesome :) Thank you so much for reading and reviewing! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Mentalist. **

Chapter Twelve: Romance Your Ego For A While

Lisbon sets the last of the paper plates into the trash bag and sighs. Jane had really out done himself today by throwing a belated baby shower for David. She is actually surprised that it was even a surprise in the first place, as Jane is known for playing the 'wild card' quite often.

Giving an unladylike snort, she takes the rope and tugs the bag shut. Even with a little baby in the picture, Jane hasn't changed at all in the last two weeks. Well, he hasn't changed personality wise. He is still the same man, just more protective over her and David. She catches herself frequently trying to tell him that she's fine, but she also knows that he is just being careful. He loves her, and because of what happened to Angela and Charlotte, he acts too over protective sometimes. It doesn't make her love him any less, but only more so. Not every woman in the world is blessed to have a dedicated man attached to you and your child.

"Teresa? You okay?" she looks up and catches Jane peering over the wooden railing on the second story of her apartment.

She nods and sets the bag down, "I'm fine," she pauses to look around. The party really did a number on her living room, and thankfully a number on David's energy. The two-week-old baby had gotten fussy and wanted a nap, so Jane had gratefully put him down in the crib, "It's just really messy in here."

He shrugs and begins moving down the stairs towards her, "Meh, you knew Rigsby was going to buy something big and then wrap it all. And also eat a lot," he smiles and wraps his arms around her. She hears him inhale the scent of her neck as he continues to nuzzle her softly, "And you smell like a baby."

Lisbon felt the strong urge to push him away from her, but she knew that he loves the smell of all things baby. He made it clear from the start that he found it to be quite a turn-on. Something about it making his inner-male extremely proud. Instead of pushing him away, she just shakes her head and steps away from him slightly.

"I thought you liked the cinnamon," she furrows her brow as she teases him.

Again, he shrugs his shoulders, "I do. Very much so. But when we're surrounded by all things baby and such, I'd much rather you smell like baby powder," she rolls her eyes, and at this he grasps her chin in his hand and turns her head to look at him. He leans in closer and she lets her eyes slip shut as she accepts his soft kiss.

Pulling away from her only slightly so he can look into her eyes, he runs a hand up her arm to pause at the upper portion, "I've started you a bath. I thought you could use a little time to unwind after the baby shower."

She nods and he pulls away, "I'll finish cleaning all this up," he says and she nods once more.

Taking a couple of steps, she looks over her shoulder and watches as he opens a new trash bag and starts picking up the discarded wrapping paper. Smiling at the slightly domestic look of him, she looks back up the stairs and begins to make her way up. A hot bath is calling her name, and she would be silly if she didn't take it. After all, with David around, it is quite hard to get some alone time. Because he is asleep, now is the perfect opportunity.

When she reaches the top step, she quickly pads into their bedroom and heads towards the connecting bathroom. She pauses in front of the door and takes a step back. Underneath the door she can see a slight pulsating glow, which can only mean one thing. When Jane had started her a bath, he had placed candles and probably an assortment of fragrances around the tub. It made her heart swell at the thought of him doing this for her. Despite having a newborn in the apartment, he always tried to remain affectionate towards her. Always reminding her that he loves her and that she is the mother of his son.

Smiling to herself, she wraps her hand around the brass knob and pushes the door open. She finds that she was originally correct. Jane has decorated her bathroom with candles of various sizes around the room and tub. He had placed rose petals around the floor and up to where they floated in the bathtub. A loan baby monitor is resting on the counter by the sink. Pausing to take in the atmosphere of her bathroom, she notes that there is no music playing, and she quickly smiles at the thought of complete silence. The kind of silence that she has been yearning for.

Smiling once more, she pulls off her clothing and lets it pool at her feet. Rubbing her hands up and down her arms and taking a couple of steps towards the bathtub, she hesitantly looks over her shoulder and turns. She had expected this to happen, especially when she had started to notice them around her sixth month of pregnancy. She has reddish stretch marks moving around her belly, though slightly less prominent than they were two weeks ago. It makes her slightly insecure about her body, and it has surely ended her hopes of every wearing a two-piece bathing suit ever again…that is if she were to ever lose the baby weight.

Sighing, she turns back to the tub and climbs in. She lets out a breathy gasp as the warm water instantly calms her body as she settles in. The water sloshes about as she leans farther back into the tub, her eyes slipping shut as sleep overtakes her.

* * *

As he straightens up the living room, Jane's mind cannot help but wander elsewhere. When he was in jail he did a lot of thinking. He really thought about his life and the part that Lisbon played in it. When he discovered that she was pregnant with David, it only made the game plan begin to take place faster, but for the better. In a way, the three of them are already a family, but he wants to make sure it is more permanent than just the two of them living together with a newborn baby. When he was released from jail, he knew that he could make his plan work, which is why a couple of days later – four days and three hours to be exact – he found himself standing in front of a jewelry store picking out a ring.

He chose something simple, something he knew she will like. The salesman kept pointing out the big and flashy engagement rings, but Jane knew Lisbon would never truly like that. She wouldn't say it to his face, but it would definitely bother her to an extent. Much to the salesman's displeasure, Jane went with a silver ring with diamonds embedded into the metal. A single diamond stands out on top making itself known to being an engagement ring. This ring currently resides in a little black box in his pocket.

When he finishes, he sets the trash bag down in the kitchen and begins to head upstairs where he hopes that Lisbon is already out of the bath and drying herself up. Walking into their bedroom, he sees that her oversized jersey is haphazardly placed in the middle of the bed, meaning she is still in the bath. Placing his hands on his hips, Jane looks over at the digital alarm clock on the end table and sees that she has been in the bathroom for a long time now. Taking a deep breath, he sets towards the bathroom and pauses before the door.

Jane nervously knocks on the door softly and presses his ear against the wood. Lisbon has been in the bathroom far too long for his tastes, and he is surely beginning to worry about her. Before David was born, she would never spend this much time in the bath, but then again he never conjured up a 'romantic' bath for her in the first place.

He knocks again, this time louder than before, "Teresa? You all right?"

She does not answer him and he begins to make his way into the bathroom quietly in case she is just relaxing. He finds her leaning back in the tub with her eyes closed. Her lips are parted and he can easily tell by the subtle rise and fall of her chest that she is just sleeping. Breathing out a sigh of relief, he walks over to the tub and leans down to tap her on the shoulder.

Lisbon jerks awake and looks up, but calms at the sigh of him. Smiling, he leans down and presses a soft kiss to her cheek. "You do realize that you have been in here for a long time."

She blinks and yawns as she nods in confirmation, "Yeah, I guess I fell asleep…What time is it?"

He shrugs his shoulders, "A little after nine," he dips his hand into the water and recoils at the feeling of the cold water, "I think you should get out."

Lisbon snuggles deeper into the water, "M'fine," she mutters as a small smile appears across her features. He kneels down before the bed so that he is level with her. Hesitantly, she cracks an eye open and looks over at him, "Why are you in here anyway?"

Jane places a hand on his stomach, absentmindedly patting the engagement ring in his vest pocket, "I was worried about you. I think you should get out and into some clothes."

She nods and he gets up. Turning away from her, he grabs a big fuzzy towel and holds it out to her as she steps out of the tub. He opens it and wraps it around her, and he rubs his hands above the material of the towel to remove as much excess water as he can. She leans into him a little, her hands coming up to rest on his chest as her head moves into the crook of his neck. Smiling, he wraps his arms around her and pulls her to him. He knows that she feels really tired right now. Nine months of being pregnant with a baby Jane, a retrial, and two weeks of motherhood have really taken their toll on her.

"I love you," she whispers softly against him.

He moves a hand up to the back of her head and holds her to him even tighter. He wants her to be with him so badly, but he can never find the time or place to ask her for her hand in marriage. Whenever he tries, a phone call or the baby monitor going off whenever David needs a feeding or changing interrupts them. Moments like these are scarce, and he cherishes them so.

"Teresa…" he starts, feeling her shift away from him to look into his eyes at the sound of his name, "Will you marry me?"

Classic. A man proposing to his naked beloved in the bathroom.

Lisbon furrows her brow in confusion and just continues to stare at him. The fingers on his chest curl upwards and her breath catches in her throat. His proposal is sudden and shocks the hell out of her, but she is a fool if she wasn't expecting this.

Her mouth cannot form any intelligible words, so she continues to look into his eyes. "Uh, I'm not wearing any clothes…" she says, a slight blush appearing on her cheeks and barely visible in the candlelight.

He looks down and nods, "Yeah, I'm aware of that. But the proposal still hangs in the air," he says nervously, pulling back from her, "Teresa Marie Lisbon, will you marry me?"

He moves away from her almost completely and begins to rifle through his vest pocket for the box. When he finds it and triumphantly holds it out to her, opening it and displaying the ring to her, she gasps, her hand flying to her mouth as if the ring made it more real. She takes a glance from the ring back up to his eyes

"Yes."

* * *

Patrick Jane is many things. He is complicated, charming, egotistical, and a pain in the ass. But he is also a happily engaged man, a father, and in love.

He looks on and sees the most beautiful scene that a man could ever witness. The woman whom he loves more than anything in this world sits in a rocking chair, their newborn son in her arms at her breast as she feeds him in the mere hours of the morning. When they were awakened fifteen minutes or so ago by the baby's wailing, he immediately told her he wanted to come with her. She didn't question him as she already knew that he wanted to watch his new family in awe.

Jane leans against the doorframe. Lisbon is brushing her hands across David's soft dark hair and looking down at him with all the love and devotion in her eyes a mother could have. The very sight before him causes happiness to swell in his heart and he wants nothing more than to capture this picture and remember it forever. No. He will just remember it and replay it in his mind over and over again so that he will never forget how beautiful the scene before him is.

Smiling, he moves into the room fully and walks to her. When he stands above her, she glances up at him and smiles. His eyes shift from hers down to David's little body and he moves his hand to softly caress the newborn's soft hair. He leans down and presses a soft kiss to David's head, feeling the baby lightly squirm in his mother arms. Jane pulls away and looks at Lisbon, who smiles tiredly back at him. He closes his eyes and presses a soft kiss to her lips.

"I love you," he whispers to her.

**~The End~**

**Quite honestly I do not know when I will start that little oneshot series, but I do hope I will get maybe a couple written before I have to go to university in the fall. But I will mention this, to make it easier, the little series will be chronological and in a single "story" if you understand what I mean. Basically...it's not going to be individual new stories published. Each chapter of the story will be a new oneshot...I'm terrible at exchanging things. :)**


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